To See You Once More
by kiches-sarjilian
Summary: Reincarnation brings another chance for love to Hitomi and Van, but will they take advantage of this opportunity? Can they tell each other the way they feel? A fanfic influenced by PSME.
1. Death and then Reincarnation

Death and then Reincarnation... **Death and then Reincarnation...**

     Well hello people! This is my Esacflowne Fanfic which is inspired by another anime story... Please Save My Earth, my favorite ever. Anyway the story goes like this, everyone has died (alone, not married, lonely) and are now reincarnated on Earth so that they can all be together again. Here's some background info about the name changes in the reincarnations, at the end I'll write a bit on how it fits into the story of Please Save My Earth, I'm just borrowing some of the scenes. 

Kanzaki Hitomi is Sakaguchi Alice (Arisu)  
Van de Fanel is Kobayashi Rin (Ring)  
Allen Schezar is Ogura Jinpachi  
Millerna ? is Nishikiori Enju (OK, so the original name was Nishikiori Issei, but that was a guy, so I'm changing it. His past life name was, Enju, and YES he was a women reborn as a MAN!) 

Well that's the line up, some may be confused when you read the story, but if you know about Please Save My Earth you might understand a bit better, so after each part I'll try to put some info as to why I put some parts in

This is my first fanfic, and if it seems unimaginative, o' well. Anyway, have fun reading it, and I encourage you all to go out and try Please Save My Earth and Escaflowne if you already haven't done so. 

Oh, yeah (this is getting a bit lengthy on the message part...), my chapters are quite long, so I'm warning you before you read if you don't like long stories!

(writing) - things in parentheses are my notes and thoughts  
_writing_ - words in italics are what the characters thinking or flashbacks  
Disclaimer: I don't own Escaflowne or anything of Please Save My Earth for that matter. 

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**Prologue** (I'm just going to make this short and simple)**:** On Gaea Allen and Millerna have already died, and it seems like Van is at his death bed as well. On Earth, Hitomi is lying ill in her own bed at the brink of death, each is thinking of the other. Van holds the pendant to his chest and regrets not ever being able to see her again. They both close their eyes at the same time, and they can suddenly see each other! They are now dead and are together at last in spirit. 

     "Hitomi, I've missed you..." Van says._ "Now that we're both dead, I'll never have the chance to confess my feelings to her."_. He looks at her sadly, their time as spirits is short, maybe he can confess to her now, before the chance slips through his fingers again. 

    "I have too, Van, but don't worry, we'll see each other again... This time we'll be together, I know we are fated to meet again... Even if it's not in this life..." Hitomi tells him with a smile on her face. 

    "Hitomi..." Van starts, but the pendant is still in his hands and it starts to give off a pink light. "I-!" he starts to say, but their time is over, and the images of their spirits soon fade away into the Earth. 

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-ON EARTH- 

    Alice was walking to school with Jinpachi and Enju, today there was to be a new transfer student. Rumors had it that the student would be transferred to their class, they would all just have to find out when they went to class. 

     When they got there everyone was already lined out to greet the new student.

    "OK class, this is our new transfer student: Kobayashi Rin from Hokkaido. Please make him feel welcome," the principal said. Alice peered through the sea of faces to take a look at the new guy. He had dark hair and eyes, and his hair was a bit unruly. She takes another look at him and is suddenly hit by a wave of deja vu._ "Eh- I how strange, I feel as if I've known him before... but where? I must be hallucinating. Still..."_ She then turns and hurries off with the others. 

    After that, they all went to class. Alice, Jinpachi, and Enju all had the same homeroom, homeroom 2-A, and it seemed the new guy did too. Since Alice was the class president, she had to be the one to show him around and help him out.

     "Good morning, I'm Sakaguchi Alice, nice to meet you," she said. 

    "Good morning to you, I am Kobayashi Rin," he said all while looking up, their eyes met and she could see that those dark eyes of his were deep and intense, like if you stared long enough you can completely drown in them. Alice quickly snapped back to her senses. 

     "Well, since you're new, please sit by me. These are my friends Jinpachi and Enju." she said pointing at them. They waved from the seats behind.

     Class started to begin and they pulled out there books. Alice stole a quick glance at Rin and noticed him turning to look at her. She quickly averted her gaze, as did he. Later that day, lunch came and all four students sat together for lunch. 

     "So, you transferred from Hokkaido? Why? Did your parents move?" Enju asked.

     "No, my parents died when I was young, I moved out here because my brother goes to Tokyo U (for lack of knowledge on Universities in Japan, I got this off of Love Hina's Toudai). Even if we don't quite see eye to eye, he's there if I need him, in other words, I live alone." 

     "Oh, I'm sorry..." Alice trailed off, "so, what apartment complex to do you live in?" she said trying to change the solemn subject.

     "I live in the Tokyo Apartments (what a lame name, but I couldn't come up with anything else)," 

    "REALLY?!" Alice exclaimed, a little to excitedly, that it came out as a squeeky voice "so do Jinpachi and I, now that you mention it, the room next to ours was vacant, so I'm guessing you're the one that moved in." 

    "Yeah, now that I think about it, I think I remember you're house name on the mailbox next to mine. We can get together sometime and you can show me around the town, I'm still not quite used to it yet." 

    "Sure, Jinpachi and I would love to show you around," she said, looking at Jinpachi who had a strangely annoyed look on his face, and Rin seemed a bit let down himself. 

    After school, all four walked home together. Enju lived closer to school than the other three, but she always walked to Jinpachi and Alice's house anyway, and walked back later on her own. No one new why she did so, they just all thought she liked to walk. Alice ate dinner and walked out onto the verandah (verandah is like a balcony if you don't know). She looked out at the night sky and then she heard a sigh from next to her. She turned to look at who it was and it turned out to be Rin. 

    "Hi," he said, looking at her with his deep eyes. 

    "Hi, the night air feels good doesn't it?" she closes her eyes and feels the wind flow through her hair, unaware that Rin is staring intensely at her. He looked like he wanted to say something that had been kept hidden inside him for eternity. "So, tell me, isn't it lonely living all by yourself? I would feel that way without my family with me." She finally looks into his eyes and is startled._ "His eyes... They look like their trying to say something... Something that's been bottled up inside and is threatening to spill over... WHAT am I thinking?"_

    "I've gotten used to it, besides I live around such charming people," he grinned at her. 

    Alice blushed a bit at what he was implying, yet she was happy he seemed to trust her and opened up to her, and she was flattered. "How many times have you used that line on your girlfriend?" she asked.

     "Don't have one yet, but I meant what I said," he said with sincerity as he held her gaze with his own. "How about you? Boyfriend?" he asked a bit nonchalantly.

     "Actually... I'm sorta engaged. You met him, at school today, Jinpachi, remember? We've been childhood friend since I can't remember when, and he's always been good to me..." she said, not really wanting to look in his eyes.

     "So you must really love him, huh?"

     His question took her a bit by surprise. "I don't know if I would really put it that way, but I promised him a long time ago when we were children, after..." she trailed off. Rin wanted to know why, but he sensed it wasn't the time or place to ask her. After that, Alice tells him to get some sleep, for school was tomorrow and that they should all walk together. 

     While Alice is sleeping in her bed, she dreams. There's a picture of a place where the moon and the Earth hang in the night sky, and a shadow of a dragon appears over the moon and Earth. Suddenly she's falling and desperately tries to grab hold of something, when an angel with wings flies down and catches her hand, smiling down at her, with his face and eyes in shadow, feathers float down. She wakes up and wonders what it all meant. 

     The next morning they all meet in the lobby and walk towards Enju's house. She was standing alone in the front, a troubled look on her face, but when she caught site of Jinpachi and the rest, a smile lit her face. As they are walking to school, Alice tells the others about the dream she had last night. Everyone jokes around saying that she has let her imagination run, everyone that is, except Rin. He has that concentrated look on his face (you know what I mean, the one Van always wears when he's thinking deeply). He's also thinking about the dream he had that night, where a pillar of light surrounded him and took him to Earth, and of a dragon who almost killed him, except for that girl in his dream that warned him, he tries to picture her face and somehow Alice's appears into the girls appearance. He was then suddenly broken out of his trance by the REAL Alice who puts her face up to his and asked if he was OK. Startled at how close her face was, he's caught off guard and starts to mumble, saying he's fine, just a bit tired because of a dream he had. She eyes him a bit suspiciously, but let's it go when she decides he's just tired and all.

     During PE that day, they were going to do fencing (O' yeah! It always reminds me of Heero in Gundam Wing, he's so cool ^_^). Rin and Jinpachi were up against each other. Both were pretty good, but it was obvious that Jinpachi had a bit more experience, and easily won. Suddenly he felt a strange wave of nostalgia, as if he done something similar like this before, then a scene flashes through his mind, one of two giant machines battling with swords, feathers fly down from the sky. He shakes his head to clear his mind, but can't get the vision out of his head. During biology class, Enju is reading a book about becoming a doctor and suddenly looks up at Jinpachi (remember, Millerna wanted to be a doctor). She continues to read, but there's a voice in her head.

     _ "A princess doesn't need to become a doctor, she help her people with her position," Princess Eries says._

     "But I want to help, please don't make me give up my medical studies, oneesama," she shouts in her mind.

     "Eh?" Enju looks up again, startled by what she just experienced. 

     Later at lunch, they all met up together again. They all seem a bit distracted. Rin then asks Alice to show him where the library was after they got home. She agrees and Jinpachi gets this slightly pissed look on his face. After school, they meet up and they walk towards the library. Alice still wears a troubled look on her face, and Rin notices and asks what's wrong. She looks at him and his face suddenly replaces the shadowed face of the angel in her dream. She doesn't say anything for awhile, and suddenly she's engulfed in a vision of the great war of Gaea. Overwhelmed by the violence, she blacks out, and Rin just catches her in time. He then puts his jacket on her carries her back to his apartment and lays her on the sofa. He sits nearby and stares at her face, thinking about his own previous dream and how she looked like the girl who had saved him. He then goes to her side and kneels down by her, just staring at her for a few minutes. He looks at her face more closely and leans down toward her, his eyes in a dreamy state, half closed, half opened. He then slowly kisses her on the lips... 

     In Alice's mind, we see the scene when Hitomi and Allen were kissing on the bridge and then Van sees catches sight of them. Hitomi then notices him, and in Alice's sleep, she stirs a bit. Rin quickly backs away, afraid she might of caught him kissing her, but she's still asleep. He sits back on his seat and continues to stare at her, thinking. He feels a connection to her, as if he's drawn to her. He loses his thoughts as sleep plagues his mind. He then too begins to dream. He sees Escaflowne and himself fighting in it, at the same time Alice sees Escaflowne in her dream. They both speak out "Escaflowne" in their sleep and suddenly wake up. She asks where she is and Rin tells her she passed out and he carried her back. She's embarrassed and starts to leave, trying to thank him at the same time. He stares at her as she fumbles around to look for her stuff. 

     "Alice, just now, we both said the same thing. 'Escaflowne'," Rin says suddenly.

     Alice stops in her tracks. How did he know about Escaflowne? It had been a dream, but how? How did he know? They stare at each other, and their past life forms place themselves over their bodies in each others eyes.

    _"Hitomi..."_

    "Van.." 

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**A Few Notes on How This Fic is Related to Please Save My Earth**

    So here's the little speel I promised after the end to tell how the story is derived from PSME. In PSME, there are 7 scientist from another planet who live on a base on the moon and watch the Earth everyday. Of these 7 there is jealousy and friendship between some, and love. They were all eventually wiped out by a virus on the base, and because their home world was distroyed in an intergalactical war, they didn't have a vaccine. When there were only 3 people left, one of who which was a doctor and he finally made the vaccine, but only had enough for one. The doctor was already infected, so he the vaccine wouldn't do any good on him. So he had the choice to either give it to the last women alive, who he was in love with, or give it to the other guy who had a relationship with the women he loved. Confusing, neh? Anyway, he ended up giving the vaccine to the guy, and that guy was living on the moon alone for 9 years, going crazy. Before the women died, she told him that they would meet again, and that the reason he seemed so familiar was because they were destined to meet again, over and over (this is where I came up with the part in the prologue). Anywho, they were reincarnated on Earth. Ok, now the characters reincarnated on Earth meet again. Sakaguchi Alice, who I named the reincarnation of Hitomi after, in PSME, she has moved from Hokkaido to Tokyo (I used Hokkaido as the place where Rin moved from). There she is neighbors with a 7 year-old kid named Kobayashi Rin, who keeps teasing her. She is 16 and has trouble standing up to him. Ok, now I absolutely have to tell this part even though it doesn't really have anything to do with the fic. While Alice was walking back home from school, she's stopped by Rin, she doesn't really want to talk with him because yesterday he spit gum in her shoe. He's chewwing gum as they speek and he calls her cruel for suspecting an "innocent" kid like him. Before that he had offered her gum, now she accepts it, he tells her to lean down and open her mouth. He then SPITS his gum into her mouth and pops a new piece into his. Funny, eh? But she cried after he ran off. So then the people who were reincarnated on Earth start having dreams of their past lives, like Alice in this fic and the others are having. As for the reason why she's engaged to Jinpachi, that'll have to wait for the next chapter to explain because I'm getting carried away now. 

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    Well, that was that. Long, hah? I hoped you liked it and please read and review! Even if you don't I'll finish the story because I want to. Any comments please e-mail me at: foolishchild5@aol.com


	2. Caught in a Childhood Promise and Past L...

Caught in a Childhood Promise and Past Lives **Caught in a Childhood Promise and Past Lives**

     Haha! Chapter 2 is now finished, as always, please read and review and I hope you enjoy it!

**A Reminder on the Characters...**

Kanzaki Hitomi is Sakaguchi Alice (Arisu)  
Van de Fanel is Kobayashi Rin (Ring)  
Allen Schezar is Ogura Jinpachi  
Millerna ? is Nishikiori Enju (OK, so the original name was Nishikiori Issei, but that was a guy, so I'm changing it. His past life name was, Enju, and YES he was a women reborn as a MAN!) 

Another Reminder, my chapters are quite long, so I'm warning you before you read if you don't like long stories!

(writing) - things in parentheses are my notes and thoughts  
_writing_ - words in italics are what the characters thinking or flashbacks  
Disclaimer: I don't own Escaflowne or anything of Please Save My Earth for that matter. 

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     "Alice, just now, we both said the same thing. 'Escaflowne'," Rin says suddenly.

     Alice stops in her tracks. How did he know about Escaflowne? It had been a dream, but how? How did he know? They stare at each other, and their past life forms place themselves over their bodies in each others eyes.

    _"Hitomi..."_

    "Van..." 

    "Hitomi!" he cries.

    "Van!" she says happily. Then as Hitomi and Van, they hug each other tight. 

    "Hitomi, I never thought I'd see you again," Van cried while holding her.

     "Van... How I've waited for the time when we could be see each other again..." Hitomi trails off and looks into his eyes. Her green eyes peer at him as they back away slightly from each other. She tiptoes up, as his head leans downward. Their lips meet and they kiss with tears streaming down their face. Suddenly both Alice and Rin snap out of it at the same time. They suddenly realized what the dreams all meant and who they once were. They are both crying now because they feel overwhelmed. They are still holding each other, but they don't notice as there arms are wrapped around each other because they are deep in thought. Then their senses come to them fully and they realize that their arms around each other. They pull back, not facing each other. Alice can still feel the warmth from his strong arms and touches her fingers to her lips. Rin is too scared to look at her, but he can still smell her sweet scent of honeysuckles on his clothes and taste her soft lips from the kiss their bodies just shared. Alice then walks toward the door and goes home, Rin is still standing there, shocked, he then goes to bed. In her room, Alice also goes to bed. Again they both dream of their adventures in Gaea as Van and Hitomi. They are starting to remember all about their past lives and each other in these dreams. In Alice's room we see her gripping Rin's jacket tightly around her, she's crying in her sleep. 

    The next day in the early morning, Alice wakes up and finds Rin's jacket in her arms and realizes she'll have to return it, and thank him for taking her back after she passed out. She sits up in bed and holds the jacket tightly to her, not sure of what she was feeling. Rin is already out of bed, sitting on the sofa where he had laid Alice, and closes his eyes, equally as confused about what was going on and about his feelings. He knew who they were in the past, but he wasn't sure if the feelings he kept having were because of that. He sighs and his mind flashes back to the time he kissed Alice in her sleep. She had looked so beautifully peaceful and innocent at that time, he just couldn't help himself. Suddenly a vision of Gaea and Escaflowne, startling him. Before it becomes anything, he's jolted back into the present when he hears a knock on the door. He goes up to answer and finds Alice at the door, he's surprised at her appearance in front of him, not sure what to say, but he does have enough sense to remember to invite her in. 

     "A-arigatou... For carrying me back yesterday..." she hands him the jacket and their fingers temporarily touched. 

    "Don't worry about it," he tells her, not quite looking her in the eye. They were both uncomfortable, because they knew they had to talk about what had just occurred last night. 

    "So, what do you make of all this?" she asks, breaking his train of thought. 

    "I don't know, I just know that lately I've been having these visions and dreams ever since I moved here and met you," he looks up at her now. "Apparently they weren't just dreams, but memories of a past life, I never would have considered that was what it was, until last night..." 

    "Me either, but we are still who we are, past life or not. This is our new life, we shouldn't dwell on the past. So let's just forget about this, alright?" she asked. 

    "Whatever you want," he said in a bland tone. 

    "I mean, I'm already engaged and all... I couldn't possibly live out a life that isn't mine anymore, can I?" she asked uncertainly. 

    "I guess not," he relaxed a bit, but also seemed a bit troubled by what she has just said, "I hope this won't change anything between us. I want you to know that you can come to me about anything." 

    She smiles, "I know." 

    She then reminds him that school is soon and that he should get ready. She waits, sitting on the sofa, for him to get ready for school. Her gaze goes to the spot they were standing that night. She knows they were probably possessed by their former incarnations, but she still feels a bit of electricity between them. She can't quite deny it, even if she is engaged to Jinpachi, but she can't believe that what she felt was real, because it could just be Hitomi's feelings, and not her hearts... Rin is now ready and they walk out the door together, both looking a bit tired and like they had cried. Just while they are walking out, Jinpachi comes out of his apartment. He's startled to see them together so early in the morning and coming out of Rin's apartment together. As soon as he sees the both of them, together and a bit tense, he can tell something isn't quite right. To add onto his new troubles, he had those dreams again. Of fighting in guymelefs, in the dreams he was called Allen Schezar, and he traveled with Van, the king of Fanelia; Millerna-hime, the princess of Asturia; and Hitomi, a girl from Earth which was called the Mystic Moon (or the maboroshi no tsuki, actually maboroshi translates into something more like phantom or illusion, but because of the song Mystic Eyes, I think Mystic Moon goes a bit better for the story line). They had been in a place called Gaea. He didn't understand it at all. He turns and sees Alice and Rin looking at each other a bit uncomfortably. He can't help but notice that they look a lot like Van and Hitomi from his dreams, which troubles him and makes him jealous that there was something strange going on between them. 

    They all walked to Enju's place in silence. Enju herself was smiling, as she just dreamt of Gaea last night herself. She dreamt of Allen of course, that was the reason for the smile on her face. Unlike the others, she knew what the dreams meant, because of the way Allen and Jinpachi looked alike. She then felt like her feelings for him weren't that off course and unbelievable after all. She had liked him for a long time. She has always tried to get close to him, but he was already engaged to Alice even before they met. When Enju meets up with them, they can't help but notice the grin on her face. Curious at what it's all about, Jinpachi asks her. She reddens slightly and says she had a marvelous dream last night, trying to drop a hint and hoping to arise the memories in Jinpachi of them together in their past lives. 

    "I dreamed I was a princess of Asturia named Millerna," the other three stop dead in their tracks, and she continues. "In that life, I was in love with Allen Schezar, and we traveled together with Hitomi and Van in a place where the moon and the earth hang in the sky called Gaea."

     "Wait, Enju, you had the dreams of Gaea too?" Enju then stops, hearing Alice suddenly speak. She knew who Allen was in her dreams, but it hadn't occured to her that Alice looked a lot like Hitomi as well.

     "... Hitomi...?" she asks unsure.

     "Millerna?" Alice responds shocked.

     "Hitomi? Millerna? What are you both talking about, it was only a dream, and how do you both know about my dream?" Jinpachi asked bewildered. 

     "Don't you get it, Allen? Don't you understand who we all are yet?" she turns to him with hope in her blue eyes, "We are the reincarnations of those in our dreams. Those dreams are the memories of those people."

     The realization finally sinks into his head, and he remembers falling in love with Hitomi. "Then... It's you... Hitomi..." he looks at Alice as Enju's face falls. 

     Alice is now looking at Rin and the others. How was it that they had all been able to come together again, the chances were one-in-a-million, yet it happened. 

     "Alice, you don't seem that shocked, how did you know?" Enju asked suddenly.

     Jinpachi looks at her and she looks at Rin, "I've been having the visions and dreams of Gaea for awhile..." She stops, but then continues, "Yesterday when me and Rin were walking to the library, I had a vision of Gaea and the terrible war we were once in. Then I fainted, so Rin brought me back to his apartment, and it turns out he also had the same kind of dreams. We then both realized who we were and what was going on."

     Alice had purposely left out the part about the kiss. "I was Hitomi... and Rin was Van in our last lives."

     Jinpachi visibly tensed at this new piece of information, "So, what does this all mean?" 

     "I'm not sure, I don't know why we have to remember are past lives, when we're living new lives as new people..." Alice said quietly.

     "Anyway, we can all talk about this later, we'll all be late for school," Enju said somewhat let down.

     At school they are all very confused and distracted. Enju keeps sneaking looks at Jinpachi next to her, while he's looking at Alice and Rin in front of him. He's troubled, because he remembers what happened between them on Gaea, and how it ended with Allen and Hitomi. He's determined not to let his past life take hold of their new ones.

     The tension up front with Alice and Rin was enormous. They sat next to each other, and even though they said nothing would change, things were very uncomfortable. It was like both were trying so hard not to come in physical contact of the other, but then again they were sitting next to each other which made it extremely difficult. At lunch, they all gathered to talk. 

     "I don't see how this affects us, we are no longer these people," Jinpachi said angrily.

     "But there must be a reason as to why we are having these dreams. Our memories must have been stirred when all four of us came together and met," Enju said.

     "Maybe there's something happening to Gaea? Or there's some kind of unfinished business that needs to be resolved with these four people..." Rin said thoughtfully.

     "Whatever it is, I think we should forget about it. The visions I had of Gaea at war were terrifying. I would not like to have a relapse of that..." Alice said softly, they all turned and looked at her, worried.

     "Since it seems so hard on Alice, let's try and forget all this and live our lives out as we should have," Rin said.

     Jinpachi was grateful for an excuse to not remember the past, but was suspicious of the way that Rin was being so protective and close of Alice. To change the subject, Jinpachi mentions that he'll be going to the doctors tomorrow to get an X-ray done of his skull. Rin has no idea why he said that at all, but it seems to affect the other two quite seriously, so he decides to ask later about it. Alice seemed shaken by this small piece of news and looks very nervous.

     "Alice, do you want to come with me tomorrow? I'm a bit scared of going there all on my own," Jinpachi said. 

    "Sorry, I can't, I have to watch my little brother today since okaasan will be late tonight," she turns to look at Enju though, "why don't you go with Jinpachi? You don't have anything to do, and besides, you want to be a doctor so this may give you some experience."

     "Sure, if he doesn't mind me coming," she smiles shyly at him. 

    He agrees, but he wishes that Alice could have gone with him. After that, everyone seemed to relax because they had gotten the situation out of their way, but Alice was still tense, probably even more tense than when they had lunch, but nobody seemed to notice except Rin. Later on, as Enju and Rin were walking to class by themselves, he asks what has Alice so tense, it seemed like no one has noticed at all. That's not necessarily true though. 

    "You see..." Enju hesitated, but then continued. "She's tense because of Jinpachi's X-ray, and she's scared there maybe something wrong with him." 

    "She sounds like she really loves him..." Rin sighed, depressed. 

    "That's not it at all!" she cries a little too defensively, "It's just that... If there was something wrong with him, she'd feel responsible..." 

    Rin is puzzled by this and asks her to explain. 

    "You see, back when Alice and Jinpachi both new each other as small children, they had a little accident," she said quietly. "Jinpachi was teasing her and threw her pendant out the window, apparently she got really mad at him and slapped him, at the time he was sitting on the railing of the balcony. That was pretty unsafe, and you can guess that he fell. Fortunately, he didn't seem too badly injured, but they aren't too sure to this day. Tomorrow is they day they'll be able to confirm everything if anything." 

     He watches her worried expression. "That's why she has promised Jinpachi that she'll marry him, because it was her fault that this happened. If something was wrong with him... I don't know what we would do..." she trails off and looks like she's on the verge of tears. 

     Rin is quite shocked at this discovery. He waits till she has recovered herself, and thanks her for telling him. 

    The next day, everyone's tense over Jinpachi, especially Enju and Alice. After school, Enju goes with Jinpachi to the hospital while Alice walks home with Rin. He can sense her uneasiness and tells her not to worry. She smiles at him and says that she's not, and that it's just a regular check up, nothing to worry about, but you can see the tears that are already forming in her eyes. 

     "I know already, you don't have to try and hide it from me. If you need a shoulder to cry on, you can cry on mine. Don't hold it all in, it'll just make you feel worst," he tells her kindly.

     The tears start to come down slowly as if she's trying to restrain them, but then they fall freely and she sobs. He hugs her and tries to comfort her.

     "It's not your fault if something bad happens, OK?" he can feel her slightly shake her head against his chest, but he continues anyway. "Just remember, you can always count on me if you need someone, alright?"

     She utters a feeble thank you, and detaches herself from his arms, "I'm OK now, thank you."

     They walk home in silence as Alice thinks about Jinpachi. 

     _"He's my oldest friend, if there were something wrong with him, what would I do? You know what you would do... You'd marry him like you promised when you were young and he regained consciousness after he fell of the verandah. I owe him that at least, but what if there's nothing wrong? Would I still feel the same way? What am I going to do...? It would break his heart if I told him I didn't want to be engaged to him and that I didn't feel the way he did..."_

     When they got to their apartment, Rin asked her if she was OK before she left and if she wanted him to wait with her. She took this into consideration, she felt so lonely and helpless that she took him up on his offer and invited him into her apartment. From there they watched out the window for Jinpachi and Enju to return. 

     At the doctors, Enju and Jinpachi wait anxiously for the results. They hold their breaths as the doctor comes in. He tells them the results and they are happy. They jump up and hug each other, so caught up in the moment, Jinpachi even kisses her on the cheek, which makes her blush and smile. They walk back, both very happy. Enju now thinks that since Jinpachi is alright, Alice doesn't have to stay engaged to him and she can have her chance to win him. As they near Alice's building, Jinpachi asks if she can fetch Alice and leave them, for he had to talk with her. She agrees and makes the assumption that he is going to tell her she doesn't have to marry him anymore. She runs up to the building before Jinpachi and races up the stairs. She knocks on Alice's' door and tells her that Jinpachi wants to see her downstairs. She notices Rin in her apartment and gives her a questioning look. She then asks if the news is bad, dreading the worst.

     "No, it's good news. Everything is fine," she said joyfully. Alice then races down the stairs herself as Enju goes into her apartment. Rin then said that maybe they both should go down and see Jinpachi after he's done talking to Alice. She agrees and they quietly sneak downstairs, hiding from the two out on the sidewalk.

     "Jinpachi, I'm so glad your OK," Alice cries.

     "Oh, so you already heard the news from Enju, huh? Isn't that great?" he looks her in the eyes, "You know, I feel like I escaped death and I'm finally going to live life to its fullest now." 

     He eyes her a bit shyly and she wonders what he's thinking. "So, are you in a good mood right now?"

     "Hmm?" she tilts her head questioningly, smiling lightly at him.

     "OK then, close your eyes and don't peak." he tells her.

     She does this and wonders what he's doing. Suddenly she feels his lips on hers. He's just kissed her, it's their first kiss. Enju watches in horror as her hopes go down the drain and Rin watches, distraught. 

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**A Few Notes on How This Fic is Related to Please Save My Earth**

    Ok, this chapter has more stuff to write about than the other. In my fic, Hitomi still looks a lot like Hitomi even after she's reincarnated. In PSME, they don't look the same as they did before, but I changed that because it just wouldn't be a Escaflowne fic with out Hitomi's eyes being green. As for Jinpachi having an accident when he was young and falling off the verandah, well this is how it really went in the original story: Alice has just taken Rin to the zoo, and she bumps into Jinpachi and Issei. After that they explain to her about their dreams of the moon and their memories. Jinpachi makes a comment on how he feels like he knew Alice before, which makes her blush. Rin, after finishing his ice cream is mad and angry. He's jealous of course. So when they get back (Alice was babysitting him the whole day) he tells her he feels like he knew her before too. She then says that even though he's a child he sounds a lot like an adult sometimes. He then gets really mad and asks her if she's in love with Jinpachi and if she was going to marry him. She then asks "What if I were?" He then picks up the crocus bulb souvenir from the zoo and runs to the balcony and sits on the railing, then says: "Alice, watch" and he drops it the bulb down and they both watch it fall. She gets mad at him and asks what the hell he was doing and slaps him. The slap sends him falling down the balcony railing and she clutches at his feet, but eventually he slips out of her grasps. Then she prays he'll be alright, and after he regains conciousness at the hospital, he calls her to come see him. She's overjoyed he's alright, but she doesn't know that he experienced his first moon dream while unconcious. She doesn't even know about them then. So, now they are in all good spirits. Alice is walking back from school again and Rin comes up to her from behind. She asks if he's going back to school soon and he said that she seemed to be in a good mood. Then he asks if it's Ok? She's puzzled and tilts her head sideways in a questioning look, she's kneeling and he promises to spit out his gum this time. He then kisses her. This is where the kiss scene idea in this fic was inspired by. Now the engagment, after he kisses Alice, she goes home and her mother asks if she's really going to marry Rin. She then blacks out and has her first moon dream. The next morning her mother said she talked with Rin's mother and she said that it was alright to humor him, since he was just a little child, and she could say they were engaged. She agrees to this, and is still dazed from her dream, and if you didn't catch on, the "moon dreams" are dreams of the scientist lives on the moon, their memories. Well that's it for this chapter. In the 3rd chapter I'll explain the Enju and Jinpachi complex! 

* * *

  
    This one was even longer than the first. I hoped you liked it and please read and review! Any comments please e-mail me at: foolishchild5@aol.com 


	3. Ecounters and the Comfort and Touch of A...

Ecounters and the Comfort and Touch of Another Human Being **Ecounters and the Comfort and Touch of Another Human Being**

     Just finished Chapter 3! This was a really long and complex chapter. Enjoy and Please Read and Review once more.

**A Reminder on the Characters...**

Kanzaki Hitomi is Sakaguchi Alice (Arisu)  
Van de Fanel is Kobayashi Rin (Ring)  
Allen Schezar is Ogura Jinpachi  
Millerna ? is Nishikiori Enju (OK, so the original name was Nishikiori Issei, but that was a guy, so I'm changing it. His past life name was, Enju, and YES he was a women reborn as a MAN!) 

May I remind everyone that my fanfics are quite LONG, and this one is even longer than the first 2, so if you don't want to read long stories, here's your warning.

(writing) - things in parentheses are my notes and thoughts  
_writing_ - words in italics are what the characters thinking or flashbacks  
Disclaimer: I don't own Escaflowne or anything of Please Save My Earth for that matter. 

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    "Jinpachi, I'm so glad your OK," Alice cries.

     "Oh, so you already heard the news from Enju, huh? Isn't that great?" he looks her in the eyes, "You know, I feel like I escaped death and I'm finally going to live life to its fullest now." 

     He eyes her a bit shyly and she wonders what he's thinking. "So, are you in a good mood right now?"

     "Hmm?" she tilts her head questioningly, smiling lightly at him.

     "OK then, close your eyes and don't peak." he tells her.

     She does this and wonders what he's doing. Suddenly she feels his lips on hers. He's just kissed her, it's their first kiss. Enju watches in horror as her hopes go down the drain and Rin watches, distraught.

     "No, no, no. It's not supposed to be like this... It should have ended... I should be the one..." Enju mutters to herself, unaware that Rin has just heard her. He realizes then that she must be in love with Jinpachi.

     Alice pulls back abruptly.

     "Ah, don't look like that! After I found out I'm OK, I feel more confident, and I can tell you my feelings now." he smoothly comments. "I'm so glad we'll be able to live together, forever, in health."

     She is shaken by his last line.

     "Well see you tomorrow," he says and goes into the building. Alice is just standing there, rooted to the spot.

     _"Oh my god! What's come over him? Maybe he really does have brain damage! Oh no, what would I do if he did? But-but, that was the first time he spoke of the engagement, and he sounded so serious this time. Eve-even though... That was our first kiss!"_

     Enju then quickly runs out the building, leaving Rin to stare. Alice doesn't even notice her as she runs past her. She then regains her composure and walks slowly back in. As she walks in, she spots Rin. She then realizes that Enju and he must have saw and heard what just went on. He holds her gaze for a minute, and then turns to leave alone, the sound of his foot steps seemed to echo in her mind. She makes a move to try and stop him, but she doesn't know what to say to him. _"It's just like that time... The time when Allen-san kissed me, and I saw Van watching us."_ She goes up to her apartment and locks herself in her room and starts to cry because she doesn't know what she's going to do.

     Enju runs fast to her home with tears in her eyes. She can't believe that they are going to still be engaged. She knows that Alice doesn't see Jinpachi as more than a friend, but she still had felt that sense of duty to him because she felt responsible for him falling of the verandah. She just couldn't stand it anymore. She then quickly makes up her mind to talk to Alice tomorrow before school. 

     At night, all four are having dreams of Gaea again. It's disturbing, because they are trying to put it out of their minds. Rin dreams of watching Hitomi and Allen kiss on the bridge. Alice dreams of Van seeing her kiss Allen. Enju dreams of Millerna finding out that Allen had an illegitimate son, and Jinpachi dreams about Millerna's wedding. They are now feeling even more and more like their previous lives are taking a hold in their present ones. 

     Next morning, Rin leaves before Jinpachi and Alice. Alice also leaves early before Jinpachi comes to walk with her, wanting to walk alone and collect her thoughts. As she comes round to Enju's building she stops, Enju says that they have to talk. 

    "You know, I know you promised Jinpachi you'd marry him because of that accident when you were young, but now that he's better, you can break off that engagement," Enju watches as Alice opens her mouth to speak.

     "But-but, even if he's alright, I promised him. I may have scarred him by what I did, and if I refuse him he can be even more heartbroken and may never forgive me," she said desperately.

     "So you're going to marry him out of your sense of duty?" she burst out angrily, "That's not right, I know that you don't really love him like that! It's wrong! Marriage shouldn't be a duty to someone, it's something you build with someone you love and want to spend the rest of your life with..." Alice looks up at Enju's pause.

     "I-I..." Enju tries to say, but is getting really choked up, "I'm in love with Jinpachi!" she says abruptly, a tear now falling freely down her cheek.

     Alice is shocked none-the-less, never realizing her feelings. 

     "Is it because he's Allen? Because that would be wrong too, wouldn't it?" she asks.

     "No, I've loved him even before I knew who he was..." she wipes the tear with her arm.

     "I never knew, Enju I'm so sorry, I made you so sad. I guess you're right though... It wouldn't be fair to either of us, he should be with someone who cares about him with their whole heart," she turns to look at Enju. "I have to tell him that I don't really feel that way about him, even... even if it will hurt him, he'll see it's best this way, and he'll get over me," she tells her. Enju looks at her with brimming eyes, "Good luck..."

     Alice nods her head, and Enju says she's doing the right thing, with the tears still streaming down her face. 

     Jinpachi has just arrived at school and is looking for Alice. He has something in his hand, a small jewelry box he wants to give her. He spots her looking sullen under a tree. Unnoticed by him, Enju is spying from behind a bush.

     "Alice, good morning, I have something to tell you," he said excitedly.

     "So do I," she said back.

     "I'll go first," he looks at her and gathers his courage. He bends on one knee and holds out the jewelry box. "Alice, every since we were little, I've been in love with you... I feel like I know you better than I know myself."

     Alice winces at his words, but he doesn't notice and continues. 

     "At first, I wasn't sure how I really felt and I couldn't speak my feelings, but now that I've learned I'm healthy and of who we once were... It's given me the push I needed to do this," he said, he quietly pulls back the cover of the jewelry box. "I never officially proposed to you, so this is the time, Alice, please say you'll marry me when the time comes. I want to spend the rest of my life with you."

     Alice is shocked. She looks at the ring in the box, and is speechless. Enju is still hiding in the bush and her face has gone dead white. Jinpachi looks up at her with an excited smile on his face, waiting for her response.

     "J-Jinpachi, do you have any idea what you're saying?" Alice exclaimed, "I mean, you can't possibly be serious can you? We're only 16!"

     Jinpachi stands and his face falters, for his plan isn't going exactly the way he anticipated. "I'm dead serious, you're the one that I love, we've been engaged since we were little children."

     "We were children back then!" she cries. "What you feel for me isn't love, but a routine of what has been for over the past years, and you know that!"

     "That's not true, I DO love you. I believe I can make you happy," he says desperately.

     "I love you too, just not in that way. Even if you could have made me happy, I couldn't have made you happy..." she tells him sadly. "I'm sorry, this is just the way things have to be." she averts her gaze from his pleading face. 

     "No, you just can't throw all our history away." he cries. "Please..." he's still holding out the ring to her.

     She takes the box and closes it, putting it in his hand and closing his fingers around it, "Please, give this to some other girl who'll love you as much as you'll love her."

     She walks away silently to class, leaving him under the tree alone. When class starts, Jinpachi is late, so is Enju. The three of them all have end-of-the-world looks on their faces. Rin is sitting next to Alice, having no clue as to what's going on, but he can sense something is wrong with them. When lunch come, they don't eat together. Rin stays with Alice though, not too sure what to say and how to ask her what's troubling her. Jinpachi decides to head out to the roof of the school building and just sulk. When he opens the door, what he finds is Enju standing by the fence with a faraway look on her face.

     "Hey," he greets her, she doesn't answer. 

     _"I feel so wound up, maybe I should talk to Enju about what happened. She'll understand, she always does. Always such a good friend... Always willing to listen to me when I need someone..."_

     So then he starts to spill the entire story out to her about Alice, unaware of the silent glassy look over her eyes. She, of course, already knows the story since she was spying on them from the bush.

     "I can't believe she said that, I mean, we're destined for each other. Even in our past lives we had fallen in love. If I hadn't found that out, I wouldn't have proposed for real because of all my uncertainty," he tells her, she goes rigid.

     He waits for some kind of response from her, after a few seconds she does respond.

     "So... The reason you proposed to her was because you were Allen and she was Hitomi? Were you really planning to marry ALICE or did you want Allen to marry HITOMI?" she asks, still gazing out at the sky.

     "Well, yeah that was one of the main reasons... It doesn't matter if I'm talking about Alice or Hitomi, they're one and the same, and in that past life we were in love," he tells her.

     Her face is still expressionless, "So the only reason you're pursuing her is because she was your past life sweet-hart...?" his silence seemed to be the answer to that question.

     She finally turns to look at him, with intense sadness and longing in her blue eyes. "Nee, do you really know who I am? Who I once was? You talk and act just like Allen did back on Gaea, you really have a lot of nerve, telling me your romantic troubles..." she narrows her sad eyes at him "...Jinpachi."

     "Will you stop staring at me like that? It's creeping me out," he tells her.

     "Remember, I was Millerna, back then, you were my lover. You loved me, and I loved you," she said, still looking at him.

     "That's the past though, it was over with them when she married Dryden anyway!" he yells.

     "Wasn't the relationship with Allen and Hitomi in the past as well? Even so, she denied you're proposal back then also. Not only that, she was in love with Van..." she tells him softly. "You see... Millerna never stopped loving Allen." she moves closer to him, her arms encircling his neck. "And... Remember... I was Millerna..." Enju then leans in and kisses him. 

     The kiss lasted about 10 seconds, all the while, Jinpachi never looked very comfortable. After he regained he sense, he started to struggle against her.

     "Mmm-mmm. Eghh!" he pushes her back and wipes his lips with the back of his hand. "What is this?! Some kind of a joke?!"

     "Of course it's a joke! Baka..." Enju is hiding her face with her hand and pushes her blond hair out of the way of her eyes. When she does this, Jinpachi sees tears caught in the air. He stops, realizing what he's just done to her. She turns away from him and slowly walks toward the stairs, never looking back. Jinpachi puts a hand to his forehead, not believing himself or how cruel he was. (This is a stupid note, but while I was reading over this part with Jinpachi, I was listening to the music in the scene like this that was playing in Please Save My Earth. It just made me think of the things I felt during that heart-breaking scene with Jinpachi and Issei. Very sad and emotional, you should definately see that part. The reason it was so sad... was because... Issei is a guy who's the reincarnation of a women... Well, I won't spoil it too much for ya!)

     Meanwhile, Rin is sitting with Alice under the same tree she was talking to Jinpachi under that morning. She hasn't eaten anything and just looks out at nothing in particular. Rin is really starting to worry.

     "Nee, Alice. Are you OK? Is there something troubling you?" he asks her tentatively.

     She snaps out of it for a second and turns to him "-Eh, ah there's nothing on my mind, really..."

     "Liar, I can tell you're depressed over something. Didn't I tell you once that you could come to me with anything? Your troubles will seem lighter if you talk to someone about it," he tells her.

     She looks at him, now her eyes look like they are holding back flood gates. His neck snaps his head up in shock at the look on her face. It's worst than he must have thought. He moves closer to her, getting nervous. He then pulls her in his arms, shaking some tears from her watery eyes.

     "I'm sorry, if you really don't want to talk about it to me, I'll understand. We just met, you probably don't feel you can really trust me," he says.

     "No, it's not that at all. Even if we've only known each other a short while, I feel I could trust you completely..." she tells him, leaning her head on his shoulder.

     "You look like you need a good shoulder to cry on, so don't hold back. I won't say anything, OK?" he pulls back and smiles gently at her.

     His comforting look releases her tears and she just sits there crying away her pent-up emotions. Everything, everything had been going wrong for so long... She felt safe just laying there in his arms, feeling his warmth from his body. It was so comforting. He pulls back again, looking into her eyes soft emerald eyes with his intense ones and smiles that warm welcoming smile. He lifts his hand and gently wipes away a tear from her eyes. She blushes a bit at his gesture, but still continues to have tears come down her face. He reaches his hand toward her again, moving towards her chest. He tugs at the end of the red ribbon on her uniform._ "Etchi." _she thinks. She closes her eyes, thinking that he'll do something perverted or something, instead, he just undoes her ribbon and uses the cloth to gently wipe away her tears. He still looks deep into her eyes as he does so, and Alice just feels entranced. 

     _"Nani? What is this feeling I have? A feeling I felt a long time ago, like we met before. Those eyes, always so deep and intense, hiding a sorrow deeper than the darkness. Always comforting me... There for me..." So familiar... So concerned..._

     His eyes squint, a look of determination comes across his face. He moves in closer, as if he's going to kiss her. She slightly moves closer, feeling his warm breath on her skin. She lifts her head. He lowers his. Their lips are milimeters from meeting, but then the bell chimes, signaling that lunch is over. They pause, still in their very close position, looking into each others eyes, not really noticing the people around them. The lunch bell didn't seem to phase them, they didn't seem to notice the sound of footsteps coming from behind the bush that Enju had once been hiding. They start inching ever closer until a someone gasps. Alice whirls around, looking into Jinpachi's gaping, mouth-open face. _ "Oh no...!"_

     Jinpachi is still standing there staring at the scene before him. Rin is still holding her, but now their heads are turned from each other to face Jinpachi. She pushes herself away and starts to get up.

     "No, don't get up on my acount," Jinpachi said, his shock changing into anger.

     "It's not what you think it is..." she said desperately.

     "Oh, I think I know exactly what this is!" he said.

     "You don't understand..." she pleaded.

     "I understand VERY well now, the reason why you refused me was because you had someone else!" he yelled.

     Rin catches his breath, watching the scene unfold around him._ "So that's what was bothering her."_

     "That's not it! There's nothing between us! Believe me!" she cries.

     "I think better go to class," Rin said, and leaves the two to talk

    . "Gee, you sure could have fooled me by the way he was holding you!" he said sarcastically.

     "He was only trying to comfort me! As a FRIEND! I'm just upset about this as you are. It's really hard on me as well, I didn't want to be the one to hurt you, I didn't mean to hurt you..." she goes silent.

     "Well you have, and seeing you with someone else makes me mad right now..." his voice seems to lose it's anger. " I know I don't own you or anything, and that I have no place to tell you who to be with, or who to love, but... I guess it's just that... I don't want to believe this is really happening... Even more, I don't want to see you end up with some guy that will hurt you!" he said sadly, but his eyes showed understanding in them.

     Seeing this, she takes his hand in hers, "You'll see someday, this is better for the both of us. Besides, I'm not going out with Rin, and he's never hurt me," she smiles. "Thank you for caring," she hugs him.

     "If anyone hurts you, I swear they won't get away with it! Even though we don't have a relationship like that, I'll hurt anyone who tries to hurt you!" he said.

     "Of course, you're still my oldest and best friend, it's understandable. Nothing will change that fact," she tells him.

     He smiles back at her now. They move back to class, and their both late! When Jinpachi spots Enju in class with her depressed face, he remembers what he did to her. After school, he walks her back. At first he doesn't know what to say.

     "Um... Enju, about the incident on the roof..." he mentioned.

     "Oh, that. Forget it, it was a joke, and a pretty bad one at it. Sorry for making you kiss me," she said with her head down low.

     Jinpachi takes a good look at her for a second, and realizes just how pretty she really is. He's caught of guard for a second and almost walks straight into a tree.

     "Anyway, the thing with Alice..." he starts.

     A pained expression starts to form on Enju's features. She doesn't want to hear anymore of his love troubles. "... I've accepted that we weren't really meant for each other after all, and I'm sorry for making you always listen to my troubles," he apologizes.

     She brightens a bit, a nice smile lighting her face, "It's Ok, that's what friends are for right?"

     Her smile makes him stop thinking for a moment, and then he smiles back at her as they continue walking together. Meanwhile, farther away and walking seperate from them, Rin is walking with Alice. She's in a much better mood and is smiling, because she's cleared up everything with Jinpachi. Rin feels uncomfortable about asking what happened after he left, because it's really none of his business, but he wants to know!

     "Um, uh, err," 

     "Eh, nani?" she asks when she starts noticing the funny sounds he's making, she smiles at him.

     "Ah, is everything alright with Ogura-kun (Ogura is Jinpachi's last name)," he asks uncertainly.

     "Mmm-hmm," she nods her head, "everything is alright now, we've cleared everything up and promised to still be good friends."

     "Ah, that's good." he says.

     "And... Arigatou... For comforting me back there..." she reddens slightly. "You're too nice to me."

     "No, it's Ok, besides... I like you better when you smile anyways," he says, smiling kindly at her.

     She really starts to blush at this._ "What am I doing?! Why am I blushing like this?"_

     Rin notices her blush and starts to blush a very deep red. "Um, there's something I want to give you."

     "Hmm? What is it?" she asks.

     He takes something from around his neck and places it in her hands. It's Hitomi's pendant. "I recently found it, I thought you should have it, seeing as Hitomi's memories reside inside you and it was originally hers in the first place."

     She takes it from him and holds it in her hands. The beautiful pink crystal glows slightly. Her mind is then transported to the time when she and Jinpachi were little, and he dropped her pendant down to the ground, and she slapped him so hard that he fell off. She smiles, it's that same pendant. _Now I know why it made me so mad when Jinpachi threw it down... It was because it meant so much to me, it was Hitomi's reminder of Van..._

     "Arigatou, it's really beautiful even after all this time. Are you sure you don't want to keep it though? After all, Hitomi did give it to Van, and I'm not really Hitomi, I'm sure it must mean a lot to him," she said.

     "No, I want you to have it. I'm not really Van either, besides, I'm sure Van would've wanted Hitomi to have it back someday too..." he trails off.

     She puts it around her neck and thanks him. "You know, this pendant used to be mine in this life as well? It's the same pendant I had as a little girl, but I never thought to look for it after Jinpachi tossed it over the window and I made him fall. Now that I have it back with me again, it reminds me of how much I really loved it," a smiles lights her entire face.

     He looks at her smiling face and is glad, because giving her the pendant really seemed to have made her happy. They then walk back home, all the while smiling at each other from time to time in the light of the setting sun in front of them.

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**A Few Notes on How This Fic is Related to Please Save My Earth**

    Alright, now as I promised I'll explain the whole Enju and Jinpachi thing to you, as well as the whole Issei and Jinpachi thing from PSME, but before I get into the complicated stuff, I'll just add that the part after Jinpachi kisses Alice and she's thinking to herself was also taken from the thoughts of Alice when Rin kissed her in the show. Ok, the talk that Enju had with Alice, was really inspired to me by the talk Jinpachi had with Alice. It was right after he found out that Alice was engaged to Rin, and he himself was in love with her. He then confronts her about it at school, and she says it's true. He then says that it was wrong to marry him because of her sense of duty, and that marriage should be based on love. After that he pauses and makes up his mind. He then tells her he loves her, which takes her by total surprise. She then says: "But, he's just a little boy, and I might have scarred him for life." He then asks her if she was going to marry him because she thought she had an obligation to him. She says nothing to that and he continues on. "Besides, inside he's not a little boy, deep down he's really-" and that's where Alice cuts him off. "No! No! You're wrong, Rin-kun is just a little boy, and it was my fault that I wasn't there when he needed me the most. I'm not Mokulen (who she's the reincarnation of)! I'm just plain old Sakaguchi Alice who pushed Rin-kun of the verandah!" she then runs off leaving a speechless Jinpachi. After this it goes to a scene where Jinpachi and Issei are on the roof talking about what just happened with Alice. This is the part where Enju is talking to Jinpachi in the fic. Some background info on Issei first. He's the reincarnation of a women on the moon, so he's a women reincarnated as a man. Now that causes problems for him, because the women was in love with a man on the moon base, and she still really loves him, and he feels these feelings as well. It just so happens to turn out that Jinpachi is the mans reincarnation. On the moon they had a bit of a relationship, but the man (Gyokulan) was in love with Mokulen (Alice) and he never really loved her. She even followed him onto the mission to ZKK101 (Earth) because she wanted to be with him. That just shows how much she was head-over-heels for him. So it's very awkward because they are both guys now and Jinpachi isn't aware of the things he says is hurting Issei. He keeps telling him that he's in love with Alice and he thinks the reason Issei got angry that time was because he was in love with Alice as well, which isn't the reason at all. Now I'll summarize that scene for you. Jinpachi confides to Issei about what happened with Alice and he asks if he's worried if he thinks she doesn't like him anymore. Jinpachi apologizes for telling her his feelings (that he loved Alice), because he knows that he likes Alice too (that's not the real reason!), saying that he just had to tell her his feelings. Issei then tells him the reason this was probably bothering him so much was because he was acting just like Gyokulan on the moon. 

    "You think so?" Jinpachi asks.

    "Nee, do you really know who I am? You think and act just like Gyokulan did, you have some nerve telling me your romantic troubles. Jinpachi..." (Ok, so these are the dub lines, but they are the ones I remember by heart so make do with them.)

    "Hey, would you stop looking at me like that, you're starting to creep me out," he tells him.

    "You know, you're not the only one caught in a previous incarnation." he moves toward Jinpachi and puts an arm out toward him. "...Because I was Enju." He then kisses him. After a couple a seconds Jinpachi pushes him away and asks if this was a joke cruelly. Issei then says: "Of course it's a joke, baka" and flilps his head revealing tears to Jinpachi and walks off the roof. 

    End of summary. So what do you think? Isn't that sad? Well I thought it was sad when I watched it, especially with that great music by Kanno Yoko in the background, it went really well. 

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    There's the 3rd chapter. What did you think? This one is a little more mushy than the first 2, and this is the first one of all 3 that didn't quite end in a "cliffhanger" moment. Stay tuned for Chapter 4 when it's done! E-mail me with questions at: foolishchild5@aol.com 


	4. A New Interference

A New Interference **A New Interference**

     Chapter 4 just finished! I really wasn't sure how I would start this chapter after how I ended it in chapter 3, I always knew the direction I wanted it to head because I knew what I wanted the ending to be, but I wasn't sure how to get to that from the Begininng of chapter 4. Well please enjoy and Please Read and Review once more.

**A Reminder on the Characters...**

Kanzaki Hitomi is Sakaguchi Alice (Arisu)  
Van de Fanel is Kobayashi Rin (Ring)  
Allen Schezar is Ogura Jinpachi  
Millerna ? is Nishikiori Enju (OK, so the original name was Nishikiori Issei, but that was a guy, so I'm changing it. His past life name was, Enju, and YES he was a women reborn as a MAN!) 

(writing) - things in parentheses are my notes and thoughts  
_writing_ - words in italics are what the characters thinking or flashbacks  
Disclaimer: I don't own Escaflowne or anything of Please Save My Earth for that matter. 

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-FLASHBACK-

     "Arigatou, it's really beautiful even after all this time. Are you sure you don't want to keep it though? After all, Hitomi did give it to Van, and I'm not really Hitomi, I'm sure it must mean a lot to him," she said.

     "No, I want you to have it. I'm not really Van either, besides, I'm sure Van would've wanted Hitomi to have it back someday too..." he trails off.

     She puts it around her neck and thanks him. "You know, this pendant used to be mine in this life as well? It's the same pendant I had as a little girl, but I never thought to look for it after Jinpachi tossed it over the window and I made him fall. Now that I have it back with me again, it reminds me of how much I really loved it," a smiles lights her entire face.

     He looks at her smiling face and is glad, because giving her the pendant really seemed to have made her happy. They then walk back home, all the while smiling at each other from time to time in the light of the setting sun in front of them.

-END OF FLASHBACK-

    Alice fingers the pink pendant on the necklace around her neck. She gazes at the soft pink glow of the pendant and has a flashback. 

    _"Here, keep this," Hitomi hands the necklace to Van._

    They hug and Van lifts his energist in the air and a pillar of light descends to take Hitomi back to the "Maboroshi no Tsuki".

    _"I'll never forget you, even if I become an old lady (obaachan)!"_

     She then has another vision, this time of an older Hitomi over the Earth. She looks over and sees that she's talking to Van.

    _"Hitomi, I've missed you..." _Van says. 

    _ "I have too, Van, but don't worry, we'll see each other again... This time we'll be together, I know we are fated to meet again... Even if it's not in this life..." _Hitomi tells him with a smile on her face. 

    _ "Hitomi..."_ Van starts, but the pendant is still in his hands and it starts to give off a pink light. _"I-!"_ he starts to say, but they both fade away before he can finish.

    "Eh!?" she breaks out of the vision._ "What was that? That memory... It was Hitomi's when she died, the last time she spoke with Van... What was he trying to say?" _ she asks herself. She looks down at the pendant palmed in her hand. "What was he trying to tell me?"

    Next day, everything is back to normal. All the big drama is over with. Enju and Jinpachi are talking with each other a lot now, they seemed to have some connection between them. Enju couldn't be happier. As for Alice and Rin, they starting to spend more time together and get to know each other as well. In no time, the group has become closer and tighter since the last string of events. 

At Lunch:

    "So, how are things going with Ogura-kun?" Alice asked slyly.

    "Eh!? What kind of question is that? We're just hanging out with each other and talking, that's all," she said, but a smile played the edges of her lips.

     "Hmm, 'Just hanging out' she says," Alice replied, repeating Enju's words under her breath. 

    "What did you say?" she asks. 

    "Nothing, nothing! This is great though, you guys are getting well together these days. He seems to be over the drama we had a while ago. I'm glad" she tells Enju. 

    "Hmm, you seem to be getting along well with a certain someone yourself." Enju said a bit questioningly, peering over to where the two guys were sitting. 

    "Cut that out Enju!" she turns slightly pink and looks over to Rin and Jinpachi herself. "He's just my friend, besides, their really nothing going on between us, we just enjoy each others company." she said, trying to convince herself. 

    Enju eyes her strangely. _"Enjoy each others company? Who does she think she's fooling!? What kind of a line is that!?"_

    "Well that's too bad. He seems to like you, it'll really upset him," she said jokingly.

    "EH! What are you talking about now!? Don't play like that..." she stares into her obento. "We're just friends after all. He's always so nice to me, looking out for me, like a good friend..."

    "Mmm, and exactly who are you talking about?" she questions. "I didn't say a name, but by the position you're eyes were and you're words I can guess."

    "Eh! Don't do that to me Enju-kun (Sakura calls Issei Enju-kun, and I just like the way it sounds)." she blushes even more deeply this time, her mind flashing back to her vision of Hitomi and Van.

    "Seriously though, who are you trying to kid? I can tell by your red cheeks exactly what you're thinking." she said matter-of-factly. "I don't think it's a one-way thing either. He always looks at you like he wants to tell you something..." they both turn to take another glimpse of the guys, Jinpachi has spotted them and motions for them to come sit with them. Rin turns his head and catches sight of Alice, he just looks at her, his face has an unreadable expression on it, very intense, as if contemplating whether to say something or not. Alice's mind flashs back to the memorie of Van trying to tell Hitomi something.

    _"Hitomi... I-!"_

     Her heart jumps to her throat and she averts her gaze. _"Darn you Enju! Putting ideas in my head and making me so uncomfortable!"_ They both start walking towards the two guys with their lunches. 

     "Yo, so what were you girls talking about over there?" Jinpachi asks, taking a bit into his lunch and chewing. "Better not be about us, or I'll get mad!"

    "Gee, how didja know?" Enju said teasingly, she laughs. 

    "Very funny." he said back. "So did you guys hear about the new exchange students? I hear they are going to be in our class, they just love sticking people in our homeroom."

    "Really?" Enju spoke up, "Who are they, do you know yet?"

    "All I know is that their a boy and girl, brother and sister, twins actually."

    "Sugoi... I've never met twins before," she says, "I guess since Alice is our class president she'll have the liberty of showing them around. How strange, so many new students transfer in one year."

    "Maybe it's not a coincidence, maybe someone is playing with us like this for some reason," Rin suggested in a semi-serious voice. Everyone gives him "what-are-you-talking-about" looks and he quickly shuts up with his bibble-babble.

    "Neh, Rin, want to come over and do homework together again? It goes so much faster when two people work together," Alice said.

    "Sure."

    Enju leans in and whispers into Alice's ear, "Since when do you two study together? Sounds awfully cozy!" Alice then stomps on her foot under the table and she asks why she had to go and do that for. 

    "Do what?" Rin asked eyeing them strangely now.

    "Eh!? Nothing, Nothing!" Alice said, Enju's words repeating in her mind. 

    "There's a fair next week right?" Enju piped in, "Jinpachi, want to go with me?" He says yes and then turns to Alice and Rin, asking them if they wanted to join them. 

    _"They really sound like a couple now... It's good though, they look happy together. It makes me a tad bit lonely though, that they're spending so much time together and I've been spending a lot of my time with Rin... We don't do too much as a group together anymore..."_ Alice thought. "I want to go, we don't spend enough time as a whole group anymore now that Enju and Jinpachi hog each others attention so much."

    They both blush at this and say the same of her and Rin, which makes her blush.

    After school they walk back together as always, Rin follows Alice to her apartment instead of going back to his because they're going to study together. When they open the door they are surprised. Inside the living room are two kids their age, one boy, and one girl, they are sitting opposite of Alice's mother.

    "Okkasan, who are these people?"

    "Don't you remember? I told you long ago, we we're going to have exchange students staying with us. This is Sakamoto Ken and Sakamoto Chiyo, they are in you're grade and are faternal twins."

    "Nice to meet you," they both said. Ken turned to look at Alice and smiled at her. He had brown hair and green eyes like hers. Chiyo on the other hand, had blue-gray eyes and blond hair. She strangely resembled Enju in a way, almost as if she could have been her older sister (Does anyone get what I'm implying here? Probably not, I'll get to it later). 

    "Please be nice and show them around school tomorrow," her mother said and left the room in search of more futons and pillows for the two.

    "I'm Alice, this is Kobayashi Rin, he lives next door to us. He's here to study with me, maybe you should join us so you know what type of material we'll be going over tomorrow at school."

    "Alright, let's go Chiyo."

    They move to the kitchen. They finish their homework and show the work to both Chiyo and Ken so they could become acquinted with it. After they finished they started to talk.

    "So where are you two from?" Rin asks.

    "We're from a place that's far off in the sky, where we come from, there are legends and myths of dragons and monsters, and wishes can come true..." Ken said in a low tone voice.

    "What was that you said?" Alice asked.

    "Let's just say from where we come from the moon is absolutely gorgeous." Chiyo answered.

    _"Hmm, strange people, but they seem Ok. The weirdest thing is... I REALLY can't remember Okkasan mentioning this at all, probably because I had so much on my mind these past few months, but still it's hard to forget something big like this..." _Alice's face contorted in a troubled look. Rin glanced at her and noticed her expression and was about to ask her what was wrong when Ken beat him to it.

    "It's nothing really, just some thoughts that's all,"

    "Well if you have troubles, don't feel shy about coming to me with them. I like talking to you, you're face and eyes are very angelic, very beautiful." he said with a hint of seduction.

    Alice and Rin are shocked and she turns beet-red.

    "Now, now, Oniichan (he'll be the older twin), do you always have to charm girls like that? You're making her uncomfortable by being so forward." Chiyo told him, she turns to Alice and whispers in her ears, "when he meets a girl he likes he always flatters and flirts around with her."

    Alice becomes even more red and Rin has a pissed of expression on. _"Why that little sneaky bastard!"_ Rin thought. _"What does he think he's doing?"_

    "Anyways, we would really like to start unpacking and take a shower." she turns back to Alice.

    "You guys are staying in the guest room, so our rooms will be linked throught the bathroom the rooms share." Alice said, "if you need anything just yell for me in the next room Ok?"

    They nodded and moved toward the room to unpack and get ready for shower. 

    "Don't they seem a tad strange to you?" Rin asked suspicously. 

    "Well they definately give off strange vibes, and I really don't remember Okkasan saying we were going to take care of exchange students, I must be out of it," she told him.

    "I'm going to head home now too, but before I go..." Rin stopped and thought about his words, "be careful about the Ken guy, he seems like a pervert."

    "Huh? Are you worried about me? I can take care of myself."

    "Just saying is all, but if he tries anything just call for me from the balcony and I'll come, Ok?" Rin said seriously. "That guy seriously grinds my nerves."

    _"Eh...? What's got him so riled up and worried for? Could he be jealous about Sakamoto-kun's comment? Nah, what am I thinking... Darn you ENJU!!! Putting all these ideas into my head!"_ She escorts him to the door and starts to undress for shower in her room. _"Still, what a strange situation... Sakamoto Ken, what did he mean by that comment? His sister seems to say that he likes me... I wonder if he really does, and could I like him if that were the case? He's so outgoing, along with his sister, they aren't afraid to say anything in front of anyone, even in embarassing situations like this afternoon._ She climbs into the bathroom and locks the door and heads into the shower. _"Hmm, it would be really strange since we'll be living together. I can't quite figure out why Rin hates him so much. Maybe because he seems to be a lady charmer? He's not bad looking, I guess..."_ She steps out of the shower and begins to towel off, her short wet hair clinging to the sides of her face. Suddenly the knob on the other side of the bathroom begins to twist, but Alice doesn't notice as she's preoccupied with her thoughts. _"Wonder what would Enju say..."_ Suddenly the door opens and Ken is standing in the doorway with nothing but a little towel to cover his body. Alice turns around to this new sound that came into the bathroom and turned around. 

    "AHHHH!" Alice screams and runs into her room trying to cover as much of her body as she could, but she has to take a little time to unlock her door (let's just say she locked the wrong door).

    "Hmph, my Alice, you are quite easily shaken aren't you?" Ken said to himself in the bathroom staring at her door, "so timid over a little show of skin. Alice... or should I say Hitomi?" 

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**A Few Authors Notes**

    Nothing in this fic concerning Please Save My Earth, it's totally original. I started righting this fic with absolutely no idea how it would go, so some of the stuff is just really boring conversation till I finally came up with something. Now I know exactly how it's going to go. A few notes, if you don't already know them. Obento are like Japanese lunch boxes, kun is like a suffix sometimes added to the end of names. I chose to call Ken, Sakamoto-kun because Alice is doesn't really know him, and it's just formal and I didn't really like the way Ken by itself sounds, maybe I'll change it to Ken-kun, nah! Okkasan: mother, Oniichan: elder brother, Sugoi: amazing/wonderful, and Etchi (from last chapter): pervert. I chose Ken's name just out of random, for the housename Sakamoto and Chiyo's name, I got it from a book by Arthur Golden named Memoirs of a Geisha, a really good book. The main characters name is Sakamoto Chiyo and she has unusual blue-gray eyes, considering she's Japanese that is. Oh, and for the record: Chan-a suffix added by to the end of a girls name, hardly ever a boys. 

* * *

  
     So, what do you think? I started off not know what to write for this fic so it may seem a little meaningless and with too much dialogue at the begininng, but now I know where the next chapter is going so it should be better than this. E-mail me with questions at: foolishchild5@aol.com 


	5. His Kindness

His Kindness **His Kindness**

     Well please enjoy and Please Read and Review once more.

**A Reminder on the Characters...**

Kanzaki Hitomi is Sakaguchi Alice (Arisu)  
Van de Fanel is Kobayashi Rin (Ring)  
Allen Schezar is Ogura Jinpachi  
Millerna ? is Nishikiori Enju (OK, so the original name was Nishikiori Issei, but that was a guy, so I'm changing it. His past life name was, Enju, and YES he was a women reborn as a MAN!)  
Sakamoto Ken - Exchange student that staying with Alice along with his sister Chiyo  
Sakamoto Chiyo - Exchange student staying with Alice, she and Ken are twins, she is the younger 

(writing) - things in parentheses are my notes and thoughts  
_writing_ - words in italics are what the characters thinking or flashbacks  
Disclaimer: I don't own Escaflowne or anything of Please Save My Earth for that matter. 

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     She steps out of the shower and begins to towel off, her short wet hair clinging to the sides of her face. Suddenly the knob on the other side of the bathroom begins to twist, but Alice doesn't notice as she's preoccupied with her thoughts. _"Wonder what would Enju say..."_ Suddenly the door opens and Ken is standing in the doorway with nothing but a little towel to cover his body. Alice turns around to this new sound that came into the bathroom and turned around. 

    "AHHHH!" Alice screams and runs into her room trying to cover as much of her body as she could, but she has to take a little time to unlock her door (let's just say she locked the wrong door).

    "Hmph, my Alice, you are quite easily shaken aren't you?" Ken said to himself in the bathroom staring at her door, "so timid over a little show of skin. Alice... or should I say Hitomi?" 

**Chapter 5: Proof of Love**

    "Eh?!" Rin was in his room reading when he heard Alice scream. _"That's Alice's voice! Oh no, I bet it's that bastard! If he lays one hand on Alice...!"_

    He rushes over to the balcony to see what's happening, the light is off in her room and he can see her figure huddled by the door, "Alice!" he calls.

    _"Rin!?"_ she looks out the window and there he is on his own balcony.

    "Are you Ok? I heard you scream, did that bastard do anything to you?" he asked, he was starting to move over onto her own balcony to see if she's Ok. 

    "I'm Ok..." she said, stepping out of the shadows. "It's just that he surprised me that's all."

    Rin could now see her and her hair was still wet and in disarray, her towel wrapped around her naked body. Now, seeing her like this, he expected the worst.

    "WHAT DID THAT PERVERT DO TO YOU?!?! I swear I'll hurt him-"

    "No, it's not that! He just walked in on me and surprised me."

    "Oh... Well at least you weren't raped or anything, but I'm sure that etchi got a good look at you." he sounded mad now. 

    "Calm down, it was my fault for locking the wrong door," she said to him.

    "I told you to be careful!" he cried.

    "Gommen, but you don't have to shout, people can hear you!" she hushed.

    Rin relaxed a little and both were just silent for awhile, looking at each others faces. Then Alice shivers and starts to sneeze and sniffle. He then remembers she's only wearing a bath towel outside on the balcony and there may be peeping tom's. 

    "My god, you must be freezing, get inside and put something on, people might be looking." he said, he was now starting to get a bit embarassed by how little her towel covered. She moves into her room and he stays out on the balcony. She draws her curtains and puts on some clothes. She drys her hair with a towel and puts on some slippers and walks back out onto the balcony. She then invites him onto her balcony, feeling awkward and unsure of what to do or say around Sakamoto-kun.

    "So... Did he see you?" Rin asked uncomfortably.

    "No, thank god! I'm so embarassed now though."

    "Will you be Ok? Do you need anything?" he said attentively.

    "No, but please don't leave right now, stay for a little longer. You can have dinner with us..." she said desperately, holding onto him as she leaned against his warm body. He hugs her and says Ok. She can feel his warm body and against hers and feels safe in his arms. He can feel her shiver a bit against him and tightens his hold on her, resting his head over her shoulder._ "It feels so comfortable and right holding her..."_ he thinks to himself. Suddenly there's a knock on the door, it's Sakamoto Ken.

    "Alice, I'm sorry I walked in on you, it was an accident, the door was unlocked so I thought no one was there," he said from behind the door.

    Alice seemed to hold onto Rin tighter when she heard his voice, "I understand, let's just forget it..."

    "Alright... By the way..." Ken pauses for a moment and smiles slyly to himself. "...You look really cute and sexy in only a towel." 

    Rin's temper rose when he heard this and he went to the door and flung it open, "Hey! Keep yourself away from Alice, do you hear me!? And keep you're perverted thoughts in your own head!"

    "Oh, so you're here too?" he said to Rin. "Must have climbed over from the other room, so you must have gotten a good look at her too. I'm right aren't I? Really sexy and vulnerable, huh?"

    "Shut up, you pervert, and don't come near her or I'll hurt you," he yelled.

    _"Rin..."_ Alice thought, she was surprised by how protective of her he was.

    "What's all this racket?" Chiyo stepped out of the guest room with a towel wrapped around her hair.

    "Nothing." Ken said, and stared hard at Rin. Rin stared back with daggers in his eyes. Ken then left and went back into the guest room, followed by Chiyo. _"What's up with him?"_ Chiyo thought.

    Alice trembled and Rin grit his teeth. "That sleez ball..." Rin grumbled.

    "Please, can I stay with you for awhile. I don't want to be alone with him. Okkasan went to the store to buy food for dinner and now... I'm a bit scared," she begged.

    "Don't worry, I'll stay with you as long as you want me to and as long as I can... I won't let him touch a hair on your head!" Rin told her. 

    Not wanting to have to confront Ken again, they left a note on the table saying Alice had gone for awhile to stay at Rin's place to help him with something. _"I definately know now that I can't even like him, he's a pig!"_ Alice said to herself. Her eyes drooped, she was getting sleepy, she leaned against Rin as he opened the door to his place. They walked over to the couch and sat down.

    "Do you need anything?" he asked.

    She shakes her head against his shoulder and just lays there with her head on his shoulder. In another situation, it would have made Rin blush that she was so close, but in this case his mind was somewhere else. She started to drift off to sleep, she was stressed now so sleep came easily. She was still laying on Rin's shoulder and he took a blanket from the side an wrapped it around him and her. She snuggled closer to him, and only then did the intamacy of the situation hit Rin. Now he was a bit uncomfortable. He could hear and feel her breath against his skin. He was also sleepy, so he lay his head against the couch and fell asleep to the sound of Alice's breathing.

-Alice and Rin's Dream-

    _"Honestly, Van... I think, you're wings are beautiful." Hitomi said blushing._

    "Hmph, only you and Merle would say that," he said.   


-FLASH-__

    "Hitomi... I want you stay with me from now on..." Van said while sharpening his sword. 

    "Van... What did you say...?" Hitomi asked.  


-FLASH-__

    "Van..." a tear slides down Hitomi's cheek as she stares at the dragon tarot card in her hand in her room on Earth.  


-FLASH-__

    Hitomi is running down the track field when a pillar of light descends and Van and Escaflowne are there.

    "Van!" Hitomi cried. She ran up to him and reached her hand out to his and he takes it, pulling her up toward him.

    "Hitomi, I'm never going to let you go again (is that what he said? I just can't remember, in the sub he said something like that)..." he blushes as she pulls herself up to him and hugs him.   


-END OF DREAM-

    The pendant Alice is wearing starts to shine slightly as a reaction to their dreams, and it wakes her up. She looks up and sees Rin's quiet sleeping face above her. He looks so sound asleep, like a little boy in bed. _"He must be tired too, I should make something for him while he's sleeping... A thank you for staying with me and being there for me."_ She gets up slowly as to make sure she doesn't wake him up. She sneaks into his kitchen and looks around for something to make. Looking at his food supply, it didn't seem like he ate much other than Ramen every night. She gathered what she could find and started up the stove.

    Rin stirred in his sleep as he remembered the time Van tried to tell Hitomi he loved her before they would never have another chance too in that life. A smell registers his nose and he starts to wake up. "What smells good? Alice...?" he quickly got up and looked inside the kitchen. There he saw Alice cooking away and preparing the table. _"She made me dinner?"_ She notices him standing in the door and motions for him to come in. 

    "Since you were asleep, I decided that maybe I should make you're dinner. You don't look like you eat much of anything that's not frozen or instant." she tells him to sit and wait a little longer. "Arigatou, for staying with me..." she said while looking at the stove. "It seems like I'm always thanking you, I don't know how I can repay you."

    "Don't worry about it, you already made me dinner, besides... I can't stand guys like that." he said. 

    She continues to cook until she's finished. Then they eat a bit silently and awkwardly, not knowing what to say to one another in such an private moment. When they finish, Rin says he'll wash the dishes, but she refuses and says she should do it since she cooked. She starts to prepare everything in a rush, trying to stop him from doing it, and she reaches down onto the stove which was still quite hot from being turned on just a little while ago.

    "Ouch!" she winces and draws her hand back. her hand is now slightly burned, but it sure does hurt like hell. 

    "Alice! Are you Ok!? Let me see," he said taking her hand in his and turning it around to examine it. "It's not too serious, put it under water," he said and turned on the sink. 

    _"I'm so clumsy..."_ Alice said to herself as Rin carefully washed her hand under the faucet water gently. She looked at him, he never seemed more gentle than he did right then. He then left to find some disinfectant and bandages. She sat there in the kitchen waiting for him. _"This reminds me of the time Hitomi got sick with a fever, and Van put ointment on the wound in her leg. Same gentleness, same tenderness, same feeling of caring..."_ She woke up from her thoughts as Rin brought back a first-aid kit. He took out the disinfectant and dabbed a cotton ball with it. 

    "Now this might sting a little..." he said taking her hand and wiping her wound. 

    He was right. It did sting, _a lot_. 

    "Ahh, ouch!" she yelped as he continued to treat he burn. Then to try and make it feel better, he blew on it, like a mother to her child, in the same loving tender way. Then he took out the bandages and started wrapping her hand slowly as to try and not hurt her. Alice just stares at him, oblivious of her eyes as he wraps her hand. _"He really is kind and gentle, such a great guy..."_. She sighs and he looks up.

    "What's wrong? Does it hurt?" he asked kindly. 

    "No. I was just thinking how kind you were to me, that's all..." she said.

     He looked up at her eyes that moment. There was a yearning in his eyes, as well as pain. He held her gaze and moved closer to her, getting ready to kiss her again. She moved toward him ever so slightly. 

    Then... a knock. Someone was knocking on the door. _"Damn, lost the moment!"_ Rin thougth frustrated. He finished bandaging Alice's hand quickly and they both went to the door. They opened it, afraid it might be Sakamoto-kun, but it was the other Sakamoto, Chiyo. She had come to take Alice back for dinner. She said she already ate, but goes back anyways. She thanks Rin, and gives him one last long look before she walks into her apartment next door.

    "Why can't I tell her? Why can't I tell her how I feel?" Rin asked himself inside his apartment. "That jerk Sakamoto can, so why can't I?"

    Inside Alice's apartment, she's inside her room staring at a photo with Jinpachi, Enju, Rin, and herself in it. She stares at Rin in the photo. Suddenly Chiyo comes in and asks what she's looking at. She shows her the pictures of her friends. Chiyo examines it closely and her eyes land on Jinpachi. She smiles slyly. 

    "He's just my type," she told Alice.

    "Oh, that's my best friend Jinpachi, he's kind of going with Enju, that girl right here," she points at Enju in the picture, "right now." 

    _"Allen... At long last we meet again."_ She looked at Enju in the picture again, _"Millerna? Well it seems the times has changed since Allen was last in love with Marlene."_ Chiyo stared at Jinpachi in the picture, a soft smile plays on her lips.

    Meanwhile Jinpachi has dreams of Allen's past affair with Marlene. 

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**A Few Authors Notes**

    Again, nothing really relavent to Please Save My Earth. This chapter is quite mushy, isn't it? So how do you like it so far? Please Read and Review! I think that this turned out a little mushier then I first intended, but I'm a romantic. I think I was in a strange mood and wanted to add a tad bit of humor when I wrote this. I've come up with 2 new Escaflowne fanfic ideas, ones a Dance Dance Revolution Competition and the other is an AU where Van goes to the Earth with Hitomi and goes to school with her, typical teenage romance stuff in that idea. Anyway, as much as I'd like to start that, I don't want to till this one is finished. Well Ja Ne! 

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     E-mail me with questions at: foolishchild5@aol.com 


	6. Test of Love Part I

Test of Love Part I **Test of Love Part I**

     Well please enjoy and Please Read and Review once more.

**A Reminder on the Characters...**

Kanzaki Hitomi is Sakaguchi Alice (Arisu)  
Van de Fanel is Kobayashi Rin (Ring)  
Allen Schezar is Ogura Jinpachi  
Millerna ? is Nishikiori Enju (OK, so the original name was Nishikiori Issei, but that was a guy, so I'm changing it. His past life name was, Enju, and YES he was a women reborn as a MAN!)  
Sakamoto Ken - Exchange student that staying with Alice along with his sister Chiyo  
Sakamoto Chiyo - Exchange student staying with Alice, she and Ken are twins, she is the younger 

(writing) - things in parentheses are my notes and thoughts  
_writing_ - words in italics are what the characters thinking or flashbacks  
Disclaimer: I don't own Escaflowne or anything of Please Save My Earth for that matter. 

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     Jinpachi is asleep in his room. He's twisting and turning, as if tormented by something in his unconscious. 

Jinpachi's Dream

    _"Please don't play with Millerna's feelings. I know she resembles Marlene but she isn't a replacement for her!" Eries cries. _(Oh, not to sure when this happened or if my wording is really correct, but it went a bit like this)

    The scene where Allen confesses to Millerna about Marlene and the possibility that Sid is a product of Marlene and their love plays in his dream. 

    "Allen, I'm so glad I got to see you again..." Jinpachi turns his head in his dream. 

    "Marlene...!"

    "This time... we can be together! Our roles in our last lives kept us apart, but now there are no restrictions and duties and we can follow our hearts." she whispers in his ear as she wraps her arms around him.

    _"Marlene." Jinpachi thinks._

    "That's right, she was my first love. So beautiful and free, but confined by her royal duty..." he leans down to kiss her as she gets ready to do the same.

    _"Allen!" _a flashback of Millerna riding on her horse to come greet Allen pops into his mind and Jinpachi hesitates.

    _"You see... Millerna never stopped loving Allen."_ Enju moves closer to him, her arms encircling his neck. _"And... Remember... I was Millerna..."_ Enju then leans in and kisses Jinpachi. (scene from chapter 3) 

    Jinpachi pulls away, _"Enju..."_

    "Hmm, what's wrong Allen? Don't you love me anymore?" Marlene questioned in his dream.

    He then turns away from her. "I'm not Allen anymore."

    Marlene smirked, "No, you're not, but your heart is still affected by him. Your feelings for Enju... And even your lingering feelings for me..." she then turns him around kisses him.

End of Dream

    "Eh! What was that dream?" Jinpachi said outloud, sitting upright in his bed. 

**Chapter 6: Test of Love Part I**

    Jinpachi is still shaken by his dream and now he can't sleep. He feels like he needs someone to talk to. "Maybe I should talk to Rin... It feels a little weird talking to another guy about it though... He might think I'm a playboy." He then decided to go see Alice, after she was his eldest friend, and she had Hitomi's memories so she wouldn't need explaining on the whole Marlene/Millerna story.

    He knocks on the door waiting for Alice to answer, but instead of Alice at the door, Chiyo answers it. 

    "Eh!?" he says outloud. He wonders who she is and takes in her appearance. _"Ah... She looks like Marlene..."_

    Chiyo notices he's a bit dumbfounded by her appearance. "Are you going to come in? Jinpachi-kun?"

    "How do you know my name?"

     "Alice showed me your picture, I'm Sakamoto Chiyo and my brother and I are staying as exchange students at Alice's house."

    _"Funny. Alice didn't mention anything about exchange students staying..."_ he thought. 

    "Come in. Alice is sleeping, but the rest of us are having dinner." she said warmly. 

    He comes in and enters where Alice's Mother and Ken were eating dinner. 

    Mrs. Sakaguchi greets him and introduces them. She then asks if he came to see Alice and if he wants her to wake her up for him. He's says that it's all right and she insist he stay for a little bit of dinner. 

    Jinpachi takes a look at Ken. _"This guy is creepy."_ He turns and looks at Chiyo. _"Chiyo-chan on the other hand is really pretty and very friendly."_ She turns and smiles at him as if she knew what he was thinking. He smiles back at her and takes a bowl of rice. After they finish eating he helps them clean up.

    "Wow, so gentlemanly! Helping clear the table," Chiyo complimented as Jinpachi turned a little red.

    "It's nothing."

    "Hmm, you remind me of a gallant swordsman and a proud knight in fairytales. You walk with the same air as of someone who held that type of title, maybe in you're past life you were a Knight!"

    _"Eh?! What is she hinting at? A swordsman? A knight? Sounds like Allen. Does she know?"_ he eyed her suspiciously as she continued clearing the table. He left later with one last long lingering look at Chiyo. She looked a lot like Marlene, but that had to be just a coincidence. No way it was Marlene. His mind then wanders back to his dream. Maybe there was a connection. Now that he thought about it, not only did Chiyo look like Marlene, she also looked like Enju, who also looked like Millerna. _"Aughh!!! All this is hurting my head, I think I'll just go back to sleep and talk to Alice tomorrow,"_ and so he went back to bed. 

Next Morning

    Alice silently crept out of her room, sure not to wake anyone. She didn't want another encounter with Sakamoto-kun again. She came around the corner to the kitchen and peered in; inside Chiyo and Ken are having coffee. _"Shit! They're in the kitchen. Now how can I get out?"_ she ponders this as she goes back to her room. She's pacing around when she suddenly looks out the window. _"Aha! I can go over to Rin's place and just get out there. That way we can walk to school together too. I'll just climb onto his balcony!"_ she slides the window aside and makes her way to the side of Rin's balcony. She looks down momentarily and realizes just how high up she was on the 13th floor. She swallows her fear and stretches out her leg to the other side and grabs on the railing with her other hand. She starts to pull herself up but- _"Uh-oh..."_ Her other foot slips and she's now dangling on to Rin's balcony with one hand, "Ahh! Help me!"

    Rin's peacefully sleeping in his bed when he hears some strangling russling outside his window. _"Hmm? Not now, I'm tired, let me sleep..."_ He pulls the covers over his head trying to block the loud rustling outside. "Ahh! Help me!" _"Alice...?"_ he thought groggily. "ALICE!" he bounds of his bed and looks out his window at a dangling Alice. 

    "Help me!" she tries to pull herself up but feels herself slipping a little more instead. She feels the last of her fingers start losing their grip and closes her eyes waiting for the impact. Suddenly she's falling! A strong hand clasps hers and starts to pull her up. She opens her eyes and sees Rin trying to pull her up. He succeeds and her knees buckle from the intense scare. "Thank God... I thought I was a goner there!"

    "What were you thinking!? You could have seriously been hurt or killed!" Rin's voice breaks her out of her spell. "What would have happened if I hadn't woken up!? You would have fallen!"

    She just kind of sits there in silence. _"He sounds mad..." Who can blame him though, it was pretty stupid and clumsy of me."_ "I'm sorry. I caused you trouble and now you're mad," she said quietly looking down at the ground, she was still on her knees. Then the realization sinks in that she almost DIED and she also could have dragged Rin along with her, she starts to go into a bit of shock. She's shaky and now her eyes are threatening to spill over with tears.

    "Hey don't cry, you're all right, that's all that counts Ok. Just don't try that again, I don't think I need another scare like that," he tells her. 

    She stops and just hangs onto him for dear-life. "I was just trying to avoid **_him_**," she mumbled, starting to regain composure. Of course he knew whom she meant by **_him_**. They didn't talk about that anymore and just started to walk to school instead, forgetting totally about Jinpachi who had overslept (remember I put them in the same apartment houses). 

    Since Alice already left with Rin, Jinpachi was forced to walk with Chiyo and Ken. Chiyo walks closely to Jinpachi and wraps her arm around his. He doesn't really pay much mind to it because his mind is elsewhere. They come to Enju's building and she's waiting for him outside. She immediately spots him and is about to call out to him when she notices Chiyo hanging on his arm. _"Who is **THAT**!?"_

    "Jinpachi dear, who's this?" she says a bit coldly.

    Jinpachi then notices Chiyo on his arm and looks at her, and back at Enju. His mind is spinning because they really do look alike. "Oh, these are the exchange students that are staying with Alice, she left already so I had to take them to school. This is Sakamoto Ken and Chiyo"

    _"Exchange students? I don't remember Alice mentioning this. And why does she have to hang onto him like that!"_ she starts to get angry but Chiyo's warm smile breaks her resolve. 

    "So you're Enju? Alice and Jinpachi's friend, you sure are pretty."

    She is rendered speechless. "I could say the same for you."

    "Oh stop kidding with me." they both giggle, the strange tension broken.

    They walk to school and find out that Chiyo is in their class, but Ken was in a different class (Good thing for Alice huh? Imagine if a pervert that looked at you was in your class). Since Chiyo came with Jinpachi, she was allowed to sit with him and Enju for that day. 

    "Neh, neh. I heard there was a fair this weekend, are you guys going? I've never been to a Japanese fair before!" Chiyo exclaimed.

    "Actually we are, along with Alice and Rin. You can come with me and Enju."

    Enju looks a little mad because he invited Chiyo on their date with them, but it's all right since Chiyo is her friend too. "So Alice and Rin are going? Are they going together? She didn't say anything about him but they seem awfully close..." Chiyo questioned, gazing at the two in the front of their seats.

    "Yes... Awfully close they are indeed. She might not admit it, but I'm positive she cares about him a bit more than a friend does," Enju whispered.

    "Aww, that's too bad. Oniichan likes her, I was thinking maybe we could double date along with Jinpachi-kun and Enju-chan! But if it's that way, I don't want to break up a happy couple," she said.

     "Oh, me and Jinpachi aren't officially going out together." Enju said shyly.

    "Oh really now?" Chiyo questioned. _"That means I have a chance still with him."_ "Can I bring Oniichan too? He'd feel all left out if he was the only one not invited."

    Enju and Jinpachi exchange worried looks. Rin had filled them in when they got to class about what had happened with Sakamoto Ken, but they weren't sure how to handle this. "Um, why don't you bring your brother along with us? That way Rin and Alice can be together. They're so shy... If we weren't here to play cupid for them every-once-in-a-while they'll never get anywhere."

    Chiyo chuckled, "Heh heh, playing cupid, sounds like fun. Ok, I'll play along too. I'll leave them alone so they can get together and try to edge them along whenever I get the chance."

    Enju smiled. She was starting to really like this Chiyo-girl. She was friendly and easygoing, later on in fact, they would find they had a lot in common.

    The whole week Enju, Jinpachi, and Chiyo spent their time with each other. They were almost inseparable. They went shopping together, they studied together, they ate lunch together (along with Alice and Rin, Ken was sitting with his own personal girl-fan club), and they walked home together. They were like the three peas in a pod; always being together their friendship grew more and more. Enju was now starting to think of Chiyo like her own sister (hint hint here). Jinpachi however, was always a bit nervous around Chiyo. She always looked at him with those eyes, eyes like the time when Enju kissed him on that rooftop, and he was scared at what her gaze really meant. He didn't want anything to break this happy moment where they could all be together... Laughing... Having fun... and just living life to a T. Of course, that happy time couldn't last forever, and their happy time soon began to crumble with thoughts of jealousy and mixed emotions.

    That weekend they set off for the fair. Enju was going to meet Jinpachi, Chiyo, and Ken at Jinpachi's apartment. 

    "Yeah, a fair! This is going to be fun," Chiyo commented at the breakfast table. Ken was sitting opposite of her sipping his coffee with his eyes trained to the kitchen door, awaiting a certain someone's arrival.

    "Jeez, you sound like a child," Ken said, sounding a bit cross.

    "What's you're problem? Can't I be excited?" Chiyo bit into her toast and started talking with her mouth full, "I love fairs, and this is my chance to spend time with Jinpachi. Oh, and Enju and my wonderful Oniichan!" she said as an afterthought.

    "Don't think I don't know you're intentions toward Jinpachi. I am your brother. Looks like you're making headway in that department, whereas I am being utterly avoided." he said.

    "Oh. I get what this is all about now. Haven't got anywhere with Alice. I think you scared her off, you should try being more subtle. You'll never win her over like this." she said matter-of-factly.

    "Well then, maybe I'll just have to take her by force then." he commented back calmly.

    Chiyo nearly choked on her toast. "Are you serious? You can't do that! It's just cruel, if you're going to take her, at least make of her own free will. If you don't, then none of it will count." (Ok, your all probably wondering what they're talking about, but you'll find out as you read along).

    As if she knew they were talking about her, Alice came waltzing in the kitchen. She seemed to hesitate when she saw Ken sitting at the table, but then she just took a seat next to Chiyo and took some toast and peach jam. She was wearing a brown short skirt (no, not mini-skirt short, just not long. Don't go getting any ideas now!) with a black turtleneck along with a matching brown sweater. Ken eyed her up and down as she ate, she could feel his eyes drinking in her appearance and she felt incredibly uncomfortable.

    "Cute outfit," he said finally.

    "Ah... thanks," she muttered, concentrating hard on her toast so she wouldn't have to look up.

    Ken seemed to enjoy making her uncomfortable, and if it hadn't been for Chiyo's sharp kick under the table, he probably would have continued.

    "Why'd you do that for?" he asked angrily.

    "Stop," she said without question.

    After that he didn't make anymore comments, but his eyes were thin and slanted all during breakfast, glaring at Chiyo. This made Alice stare at their strange behavior.

    After Alice finished off her breakfast she got up to leave. "Well see you later, have fun with Jinpachi and Enju."

    "Bye, you have fun too," Chiyo responded.

    "Maybe we'll bump into each other and we can hook-up there," Ken called to her back as she quickly left. 

    When they were ready, Chiyo and Ken went over to Jinpachi's apartment. "Jeez, Enju sure is late. Does she always take this long?" Ken complained.

    "We haven't even been waiting 10 minutes and already you're complaining!" Chiyo scolded.

    "Well sorry if I get bored easy." he said.

    _"Gee, what's with this guy? What's his rush?"_ Jinpachi thought. 

    "Ok, I just can't sit here, I think I'll go on ahead. Maybe I'll catch up with Alice and Rin," Ken said, already making his way toward the door.

    "Don't meddle with them now!" Chiyo shouted as he walked out, not hearing a word.

    "You're brother's really something there. Compared to you he seems so much younger. It's like you have to supervise him," Jinpachi commented. 

    "Well he is rash and a bit immature. That's why I came with him, to watch that he doesn't get himself into too much trouble." she replied, Jinpachi nodded his head in understanding. Chiyo inched closer to him, "So you think I'm mature!? That's nice to hear. If people saw the way I acted they'd call me childish, don't you think?"

    "I don't think you're childish. Sure you talk in a bit of a childish manner at times, but inside you have a mind of an adult. Those people who are irresponsible and selfish are the real childish ones," he answered with a blush.

    "I think you sometimes act a bit childish yourself," Chiyo said playfully.

    "Why you!" he said and started to tackle her. They fell to the floor and he started tickling her, laughing. "Now who's a child?!"

    "You are," Enju said from behind, she had let herself in. "Honestly, do adult people act like this?" she asked a little coldly. "I'm so glad you two children are so friendly. Well? Are you just going to wrestle each other all day or are we going to go to the fair?!"

    "Hai hai," Jinpachi said apologetically.

    As they made their way to the fair, Chiyo chatted away happily with Jinpachi while Enju walked in cold silence.

    _"Look at her. She's hanging all over him and he doesn't even seem to mind. This was supposed to be our date."_ Enju thought.

    At the fair, they waited for the parade to start. They saw Alice and Rin stroll by on the other side and waved hello. Chiyo sighed with relief that her brother wasn't pestering them.

Across the Street

    "Look, Jinpachi and Enju are with Chiyo-chan. I thought this was going to be a group trip, I hardly see either of them anymore," she complained.

    "What? Is hanging out with me getting boring already? I'm hurt," he said pretending his feelings were hurt.

    "No, I like spending time with you. It's just..." she stopped and he started listening to her seriously; "it's just that ever since they've kind of gotten together I feel like I'm not really needed anymore. I know it's stupid but I can't help feeling like they've forgotten us."

    Rin turned to her, "Do you know the reason why we're not together as a group right now?"

    Alice shakes her head and he continues, "They went off by themselves because they invited Chiyo to come along with us, but then she asked if Ken could come. They then said that the two of them should go with them, so you wouldn't have to confront Ken." 

    "Oh, I see. I didn't know they did that. I'm grateful for that, but even now he's not with them, and that makes me a bit nervous," she said.

    Rin looks at her with a worried look, "Don't worry, I'm here with you, I'll protect you from that etchi." He takes her hand and pulls her forward, "Come on, let's go on a ride, watching parades aren't really my thing."

    Then the parade started coming down the street. The floats were decorated with colorful flowers and the air smelled of sweet flowers. "Wow, pretty," Chiyo murmered, "it smells so nice."

    They watched as rows and rows of beautifully decorated floats passed them till there were no more. 

    "Look, over there! The new roller coasters finished, let's get in line," Jinpachi suggested. They nod their heads in consent and rush off to the long line.

    "That's looks scary..." Enju muttered under her breath. She took a bit of her noodles she bought before they got in line so she had something to eat while waiting. 

    "If you're scared you can always back down," Chiyo said.

    Enju's face turned stony; "I wouldn't back down if it meant my life."

    Enju continued to munch on her noodles, each time they moved up the line, her stomach folded into another knot. She could feel the sweat trickle down her forehead. _"Ah...! I didn't know I was afraid of roller coasters..."_

    "Enju, are you Ok?" Jinpachi asked when he noticed how pale she was.

    "I-I'm fine, hehe," she laughed nervously.

    She watched the loops of the coasters and heard the screams of the passengers. She started to get more and more uneasy as the minutes went by. Finally they were at the head of the line and got on. Chiyo and Jinpachi loved roller coasters, so of course they took the front 2 seats. Enju sat in the middle because she was too scared to sit in either the front of the back. The coaster started. They went upwards slowly. _"This isn't so bad,"_ Enju thought to herself. Suddenly they reached the top, and down they went. They swerved right, left, up, down, and around. The went in loop after loop. You could hear the cries of joy from the people up in front who rode with their hands straight up in the air every second. Poor Enju looked sick and was screaming her head off out of fright rather than excitement. When the ride was over, Enju was still screaming as everyone got off. 

    "We don't know her," Chiyo whispered to Jinpachi, pretending it wasn't them that Enju kept calling after.

    "You... guys... are... so... mean!" Enju breathed out when she finally caught up to them.

    "Jeez, you're so embarrassing like that," Chiyo muttered.

    "Well sorry, I didn't know roller coasters weren't my thing," she said clutching her stomach because her insides were churning.

    "It suited us just fine," Jinpachi said, "you don't look to good, maybe you should rest for a while before we do anything else."

    "I'm fine I'm fine," Enju stammered, but she really wasn't feeling all that 'fine'. 

    "Well that's good to hear, I thought you were going to have a heart attack or something," Chiyo laughed, swatting Enju heartily on the back.

    Suddenly Enju couldn't hold it in anymore; she rushed to the nearest garbage can and started emptying the contents of her stomach. Chiyo and Jinpachi brought her over to a bench and sat her down. 

    "If you didn't feel good you should have said so," Jinpachi said while easing her onto the bench. Enju didn't reply and she was still pale and felt sick. "What are we going to do now?" Jinpachi asked.

    "Well I guess we have to go back since Enju isn't feeling good," Chiyo answered.

    "No no, please don't leave on the account of me. We'll stay, you guys can go on without me on the bigger rides. I'll just wait for you guys at the end of the line and stand in line for you, that's about all I'm good for in this condition," she said sadly, Jinpachi gave her a look that seemed to say 'Are you sure?' "It's fine, it's fine. Just go and have fun without me."

    Chiyo and Jinpachi walked off to the next big coaster with Enju looking at them longingly. _"Even though I said that, I'm really not fine with it..."_

Elsewhere...

    Alice and Rin stepped up to the platform to get on the ferris wheel (by ferris wheel I don't mean those american ones where you could easily fall off when you lean back, I mean the Japanese ones with the windows and stuff). Alice stood in the middle and peered over the side of the window, "Wah... Pretty," she said as she caught sight of all the people and colorful tents down underneath their feet. 

    Rin watched her marvel at the tiny people and buildings from high above. It was the first time he ever seen her truly carefree. Like a little child excited over a new toy, her expression was priceless. He couldn't help staring at her happy face, because in a long time, it was the first time she was truly very happy. It was the first time he had seen her like that, and it made him happy as well, his lips turning up into a genuine smile.

    "I feel like all my troubles and worries are so tiny when I look at the world from this high view," she whispered, suddenly turning a little solemn; "if I could just leave my troubles behind like this each time..."

    At that moment, she looked sad, yet at peace at the same time. Rin had a sudden urge to hold her, but he didn't act on it. Instead he just gazed at her face as her expressions changed back into cheerfulness. "I must sound so strange, forget what I said."

    "No, you're right. Looking at how small all the people and things look down there, makes me think how trivial some of my worries and problems really are," he said, he got up and stood next to her looking out the same window. "It's like I can forget all the things that were on my mind and concentrate solely on the most important things." Alice leaned her head on his shoulder and sighed.

    _"Right here, right now... It's like everything down on the world below us doesn't matter. All that matters is right here,"_ she thought gazing at the Earth below. She snuggled deeper into his shoulder and breathed peacefully. He could feel her warm breath against the arm of his jacket and moved his fingers so that they were slightly touching hers. She moved her fingers along side his as they relaxed in the comforting moment. He then naturally moved his arm around her without her head loosing contact with his shoulder and put his arm around her pulled her slightly closer to him. _"So comfortable..."_ Alice's heart was pounding in her chest (doki doki ^_^). Rin gently shook her head of his shoulder and she turned to look at him, he moved both his hands on to her shoulders and looked straight into her eyes. 

    There, in the moment, Rin wanted to just kiss her and tell her how he felt, but something was pulling him back. He was afraid, afraid she would push him away, but this was a perfect opportunity, and another might not present itself for a long time. He took a breath, "Alice... I..." he moved closer to her and was getting ready to kiss her. He closed his eyes and lowered his head.

    Alice closed her eyes, waiting for what she new was coming in anticipation. She lifted her head towards his lips. She could feel his breath and the warmth of his hands on her shoulders matched the warm red of her cheeks. She pursed her lips waiting those mere seconds that seemed to pass for hours. Suddenly their ride came to a halting screech, knocking Alice and Rin off their feet and onto each other on the floor. The moment was gone once again.

    "Oww..." Alice rubbed her head and sat up. She looked down and saw that she was sitting on top of Rin, her legs on both sides of his stomach. She turned bright red and was too embarrassed to even get up, she was just looking at Rin with her rosy cheeks and her hands to her face. The ride operator opened the door and took in the scene before him. 

    "Next time, find somewhere else to do your dirty business," he said disgusted.

    They quickly got up without a word and left, they were both very embarrassed. When they were out of ear range Alice moaned, "Ah, now everyone will think I'm some sort of bimbo!"

    Rin laughed hysterically at the thought of her being a bimbo. Like those things in the world (like yawning! it's so true), his laugh was contagious and Alice soon caught it and started laughing hysterically. As if called on by their laughter, Ken appeared around the corner, but was out of site from the two. He secretly followed the two around. 

Back with Jinpachi, Chiyo, and Enju...

    "You guys having fun?" Enju asked the two once they came back from the 'typhoon' (the 'typhoon' is also called 'kamikaze' it's the thing w/cages and you go upside in circles, their at most carnivals).

    "Yeah, you should come next time!" Chiyo piped in.

    "I don't think my stomach is ready to handle that just yet, I still feel like I'm being tossed around by the ocean waves," Enju groaned.

    "That's too bad, you're not having any fun. I know, why don't you play the games around while you wait for us? That way you won't be bored and you can still enjoy the fair, we can meet up with you once we get off the next big ride," Chiyo suggested. 

    "I guess," Enju replied unenthusiastically as she began to march towards the game booths while Jinpachi and Chiyo were already running half-way towards the next giant coaster.

    _"Jeez. Just leave me all by myself. Why'd I have to have such a week stomach? I guess there's no helping it though,"_ Enju thought as she stood watching the two laugh happily from afar._ "It's not fair. I was hoping to spend some time with him and he spends all his time with Chiyo! At this rate I'll never get anywhere. Wait... Am I jealous of Chiyo? How?"_

    After Jinpachi and Chiyo rode on the roller coaster twice, they started heading back towards Enju.

    "Now where did we say we were going to meet her again?" Jinpachi wondered outloud.

    "It's ok, we'll find her eventually. Hey, it's a prinkura (Print Club, you know the sticker picture machine. I just love sticky pix ^_^)! Let's take a picture, I want a souvenir to show everyone when I go back," Chiyo exclaimed excitedly.

    "Shouldn't we wait till we find Enju first so we can take it all together?" he asked. 

    "I want to take it with Enju too, and I want to take dozens of them. Where I come from they don't have sticky pic's, so I want to take as many as I can for memory. When we find Enju we can take more together," she reasoned.

    "Ok then," they wandered over to the picture machine.

    "Hmm, where could they be? I've been waiting forever," Enju complained as she scanned the crowd for her two companions. She got up and started looking for them.

    "Ok now, make a really goofy face. I love looking totally goofy in pictures, that way we can laugh at them when they come out, and it's definately a lot more fun that way," Chiyo said putting in the money.

    Chiyo stuck out her tongue and widened her eyes so that she looked absolutely ridiculous. Jinpachi laughed at her and followed her lead and made a face of his own. FLASH, a picture was snapped. Jinpachi pulled his long hair into a strange looking hairdo while Chiyo borrowed some of the leftover hair and put it on her head so it looked like she was wearing a wig. FLASH, a picture was snapped. They were in hysterics by now. They couldn't stop laughing at their funny photos. There were 8 pictures to be taken (Just like the Korean picture booth I love so much!) They had already taken 6 and by now they were begininng to calm down. Chiyo put her arms around Jinpachi's neck and told him to put his around hers and face the camera and make kiss faces. The picture was taken, there was only one more now. They were laughing again, arms still around each other. Chiyo suddenly turned serious and looked up at Jinpachi's laughing face. He was the only one laughing now. She locked his gaze and his laughter subsided. They were both silent now, Chiyo slowly brought her lips up to his and kissed him. The final picture was taken and the NG parade started rolling on the screen (FYI, NG stands for 'Not Good'. It's all the inbetween parts where you're scrambling to take a picture and you don't know they caught you on camera. It's hilarious!)

    _"Now where can they be? Hmm? Oi, that looks like them in the prinkura machine. Hehe, I'll surprise them and scare them! It'll make one hilarious picture!"_ Enju snickered at her idea as she silently crept behind them. She jumped at them from behind and shouted "Boo!" She opened her eyes and drank in the scene before her. She gasped and Jinpachi spun around to face her.

    "Enju! No, it's not what it looks like!" he cried as she turned and fled. He started to go after her but something held him back. It was Chiyo.

    "Stop! Don't I matter as well?" she asked.

    "What!? You kissed **ME**!" he yelled.

    "Does she mean more to you than I do? Huh? I know you know..." she stared him straight in the eye; "I know about you and Millerna!"

    Jinpachi stops right in his tracks, "Wha-what did you just say?"

    "You heard me. I know about you and Millerna, Allen."

    "How do you know? Just who are you?"

    "I am Marlene. The one you used to love."

    Jinpachi's eyes widen in disbelief, "B-but how? It can't be. That was another life, I'm not even Allen anymore!"

    "That maybe..." she took a step closer to him; "but you're current life is still affected by him, and until he makes up his mind I'm not going anywhere."

    "What...?"

    "I'm here for a reason. I'm not just from another country. I'm from another world," she gave it a second for all of it to sink in; "I am from Gaea. We were sent to this world by the last wish of the Atlanteans."

    "We...? Atlanteans...?" Jinpachi asked, baffled.

     "That's right. This new life the four of you have, it wasn't just another miracle. It was fate. It was the wish of one last dying soul that you would all be able to see each other again, and that wish was granted," she paused; "but, the full wish has yet been fulfilled due to the ones involved in it, because of this, we were sent, me and Ken. We are here to test your love, to see that this wish wasn't in vain. I was manifested with this form and soul, because it would be the ultimate test. To see if it was I, Marlene, or Millerna, that you love."

    He just stared blankly at her with unflickering eyes. 

    "Allen..." Chiyo/Marlene put her hand upon his cheek; "we can be together now, there's nothing that stands in our way anymore. We can love each other freely in this life!"

    "No," he said.

    "Eh?" she took a step back.

    "I said no. This isn't the reason why I was reborn. I'm not Allen, and you're not really Marlene, and even if we were, we couldn't pick up what they once had. I want to live my life as Jinpachi, not someone who doesn't exsist anymore," he told her. "I'm sorry, but I don't love you."

    "Why? Is it because of Millerna that you don't love me anymore?" she asked in tears.

    "No, Allen loved Marlene, but after she died he fell into despair. After awhile, he was able to move on, and he truly loved Millerna. The reason I can't return your feelings is because I'm not Allen. I'm Jinpachi, and I love someone else. I'm sorry..." after he said these words, he ran off in the direction Enju had gone. 

    Chiyo stood there apalled, she hadn't expected this to happen.

    _"It seems he really does love her. I guess this means they pass the test, but was that all I was used for? Even though I'm just a manifestation of something false, I still had a mind and soul. Living in this form... just to see you one last time... Allen...."_

    Chiyo lips turned in a sad smiled, "I guess there's no need for me anymore," and with that, she faded away.

    _ "Half of the wish has been fulfilled now, but will his wish truly be recognized in time for it to come true? Is fate really this cruel?"_

~Elsewhere~ 

    _"Hmm, seems like Chiyo failed. No matter, I'll make sure that the second half of this wish won't come true. I'm not soft like Chiyo, it's time for me to step up to the plate and take a swing, and I won't miss!"_ (if you can't tell, this is Ken thinking here) 

  


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**A Few Authors Notes**

    Yeah, yeah, I know I suck at writing. I have all this fabulous story ideas that I play over in my head dozens of times, but when it comes time to write my visions, I can't find the right words. This story isn't that well written because I was kind of making it up along the way, and along the way I wasn't sure how to write it. Well hopefully my writing skills will begin to kick in again now that schools coming tomorrow! I wrote this on August 28, 2001. Anyway, till then keep reviewing. 

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     E-mail me with questions at: foolishchild5@aol.com 


	7. Test of Love Part II

Test of Love Part II **Test of Love Part II**

     Well please enjoy and Please Read and Review once more.

**A Reminder on the Characters...**

Kanzaki Hitomi is Sakaguchi Alice (Arisu)  
Van de Fanel is Kobayashi Rin (Ring)  
Allen Schezar is Ogura Jinpachi  
Millerna ? is Nishikiori Enju (OK, so the original name was Nishikiori Issei, but that was a guy, so I'm changing it. His past life name was, Enju, and YES he was a women reborn as a MAN!)  
Sakamoto Ken - Exchange student that staying with Alice along with his sister Chiyo  
Sakamoto Chiyo - Exchange student staying with Alice, she and Ken are twins, she is the younger 

(writing) - things in parentheses are my notes and thoughts  
_writing_ - words in italics are what the characters thinking or flashbacks  
Disclaimer: I don't own Escaflowne or anything of Please Save My Earth for that matter. 

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    Jinpachi was running, frantically searching for Enju. Suddenly he caught sight of her, "Enju... please... listen to me."

    She stopped and whirled around, "Why do you want to talk to me for? All you do is pay attention to Chiyo anyways!"

    "You're wrong, Chiyo was just my friend, there was never anything more between us!"

    "Well from what I saw it definately didn't look that way," she retorted.

    "Argh, why do you have to be so difficult!"

    "Well you're the two-timer here!"

    "When are you going to understand!?" he grips her shoulders with his hands. "You're the one that I care about, you're the only one that I've truly cared about in that way!"

    This silences her into shock, "What are you trying to say?"

    "I'm saying that I like you!" At hearing his own words he thinks about his words. "I like you... I like spending time with you, and not because you were Millerna, but because I truly like you as Enju."

    The tears well-up in her eyes again, "Baka... Don't you know how much I care about you already?"

    As her tears fall down the side of her face, he holds her and she rests her head on his chest. "For a long time now, I've been in love with you... but you were always so blind, and never even noticed my feelings."

    "Why...? Why didn't you ever tell me you really felt that way?" he murmured.

    "Kawai (not that's not kawaii, [cute] I mean kawai, at least that's how I think it's spelled, it means scared). Back then it was your engagement to Alice, and then it was Chiyo. I didn't want to feel the pain of your rejection again."

    "What makes you think I'm going to reject you?" he asks gently.

    "That time, when I kissed you on the roof, you pushed me away. After that... I wasn't sure about your feelings."

    "That was then. I was a stupid fool, I was feeling rejected at the time and then I, myself, rejected someone in return." he tilts her head to look at him. "But this is now, and I'm sure of my feelings now, and I can see yours as well." he gently wipes the tear from her eye and leans down and kisses her.

    "Ahh, baka! What makes you think that means that you can kiss me!" she shouts, pushing him away.

    _"Huh?"_ he gets this adorable confused look on his face, "But I thought..."

    Suddenly Enju couldn't hold it in any longer. "Hahahaha... your face... it's just to funny. I couldn't resist, that look on your face... Hahahaha."

    Hurt etches his face as she continues to laugh. _"Is this just some kind of joke to her? Here I just spilled all my feelings and she just laughs them back into my face."_

    Enju notices his hurt puppy dog face and stops laughing, "Don't look so hurt, I'm just playing with you." She smiles and takes a step closer to him and plants a kiss on his lips, "Jinpachi no daisuki!"   
(Daisuki - also translated as love, but literally translates as "big like". Suki - like, Dai - big.)

    He smiles back and leans in to kiss her again, this time she didn't push him away.

(if you're lost as to what Enju was doing, she was pretending she was Jinpachi when she kissed him in one of the last chapters)

~Elsewhere~

    Alice covered her yawn with her hand as she rested her head on Rin shoulder, "I'm getting tired already..."

    Rin blushed at her head on his shoulder, "Yeah, I'm getting a bit tired too, maybe we should head back now." Alice gave no vocal answer and just nodded her head, rubbing it against his shoulder making him blush even more.

    Unknown to them, Ken was still tailing them from behind. "Well they seem cozy," he sneered to himself. They rounded the corner and came upon their apartment building.

    "Well I guess I'll see you later then," Alice said as she stepped into her apartment, leaving Rin to gaze at where she just was.  
~sigh~

    _"Guess I'll take a nap as well."_ He wandered into his room and looked out the window after plopping down onto his bed. Suddenly he hears movement from the room over. _"What could that be?"_ He puts his ears to the wall and he can hear Alice softly humming in her room that was the apartment right next to his. He smiles and lays back down on his bed.

    In her room Alice had taken off her jacket and hat and was lying peacefully on her own bed.  


~Outside the Apartment~

    _"Hmm... Alone at last."_ Ken smiled wickedly as he snuck into the apartment. Inside, Alice had already fallen into a quiet slumber on top if her covers without changing into her pajamas (she's still in her short skirt). Ken slowly crawled into the empty apartment. Alice's bedroom door was wide opened, so he slithered into her room in utter silence and shut the door behind him. Only the sound of Alice's rhythmatic breathing could be heard throughout the apartment. Suddenly Alice's face becomes contorted, as if she's experiencing nightmares and she struggles in her sleep. Then she opens her eyes... 

    **"KYAAAAAAA!!!"**   
(Kya - a cry of pleasure, horror, or surprise)

    There, right on top of her, was Sakamoto Ken. His face was so close to hers that she could feel his breath on her face.

    **"GET OFF OF ME!!!"** she cried. She tried to lift her hand to slap him, but soon found out that both her arms were pinned down by Ken's. "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!?!?" she asked frantically.

    His lips turned up in a sinister smile at her fright, "You don't have to yell so loudly, Hitomi..."

    Alice froze at the mention of Hitomi. How could he know? Suddenly his lips forced themself onto hers. Alice tried and struggled to break free of his grasp, but to no avail. Tears were now streaked down the side of her face. He continued his assault on her by kissing down her neck, all the while she was crying and squirming under his grasp. Then he put one of her arms under her all the while having the other still pinned down with his other hand. He continued to kiss her down her throat and nearing her chest. He slipped his now free hand under her shirt and started caressing her breast and feeling her smooth body. Now Alice knew exactly what he planned to do with her, and she screamed at the top of her lungs:

    **"SOMEBODY HELP ME!!!"**

    Her cry echoed through the walls and into the apartment room right next to hers, jolting Rin up from his sleep._ "Alice..."_ Her cries continued as he hurriedly slid open his window and stepped out onto his balcony, he peered over into her room and his face contorted with horror at what he saw. He caught sight of her pleading, tear stained face and his eyes widened. He quickly climbed over onto her balcony and pounded his fist on her window for Ken to stop, but he didn't. He looked up at the disturbance and again smiled his evil grin and kissed her again, all while watching Rin's face. Ken then took his free hand out from under Alice's shirt and snaked it under her skirt and panties. Rin's face turned into one of pure horror as he realized what Ken was about to do. Ken then slid his fingers into Alice, making her cry out in pain and torment.

    "Please... Stop..." she begged through her tears, but he didn't stop. Now Rin was banging furiously against her window, trying to break into her room and stop Ken. He stopped and spotted a plant pot on the balcony floor and used it to smash through the window. He ran in and literally ripped Ken off of Alice.

    "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING YOU BASTARD!?!?!?" he demanded all while shaking Ken violently by his collar.

    "Well, gee, what's it look like? I'm having some fun," he replied calmly.

    "YOU SICKO! Is that you're idea of fun, forcing yourself onto someone?" and with that Rin slammed his fist into the side of Ken's face. 

    He was pushed back into the wall near the window, "Hmm... touchy, but I'm not done yet." He then sprung forward and grabbed Alice off the bed and took her over to the balcony before Rin had time to react.

    "NO! Alice!" he takes a step forward, but Ken motions for him to stop.

    "One step closer, and I pull both her and me over," he threatened, and to prove he meant it, he sat her on the railing reading to push her down.

    "Alice! Don't hurt her!" he was stuck, he couldn't do anything. If he tried to attack him, Alice might fall, and he very well couldn't just leave her to that creep.

    "The clock's ticking, Van," Ken said.

     At the mention of Van, Rin's head lifted. "How do you know that name?"

    "Now, now, don't take that type of tone with me. I'll get angry, and I just might have to kill you're sweet little Alice here," he said in a voice dripping with honey.

    Meanwhile, thoughts raced through Alice's head. How was she going to get out of this one? Ken, that bastard! She watched as Rin struggled to figure out what to do, he was obviously torn. "So... what are you going to do? Why don't you just leave me and Hitomi's reincarnation here back to our business?" he jeered.

    At this, Alice's last nerve cracked, "You DAMN CREEP! I'd rather die than ever be with you!" She then tried to kick him but missed so she then grabbed him by the head and tried to wrestle him, all while sitting on the railing of a 15 story high balcony. Then the inevitable happened, she tilted backwards in a loss of balance and started to plummet towards the ground, dragging Ken with her.

    "Yahhhh!"

    "ALICE!!!" Rin climbed on top of the balcony.

    Alice was now falling, _"So... this is how it's going to end? At least I brought down that bastard Ken."_ she looks up at the balcony, it seemed like time was going by so slowly, she catches a glimpse of Rin on the balcony, but she sees him as Van._ "Why do you look so sad, Van? At least... we got to see each other one last time..."_ Alice continued to fall to the Earth.

    _"Well, it seems to be the end of the line for me."_ Ken thought as he plummets to the ground. Just as he's about to hit the pavement, he fades away and disappears.

    _"No! Hitomi!"_ Van/Rin jumped off the balcony and started to plummet towards the ground along with Alice. "Alice!" He tried to reach her and caught hold of her hand. _"Van... Please... If I ever needed you, it's now... I need your help...** NOW**!"_ The pendant around Alice's neck started to glow pink. 

    Suddenly their descent was slowed to a light float as white feathers swirled around the two. Rin touched down lightly on the street and Alice opened her eyes. 

    "White wings... Rin... You're an angel," and with that, she blacked out. Rin looked at his wings. _"I can't believe this... Van... Arigatou."_ He then scooped her up and took her back into her room, flying her up there. He places her on her bed and watches her sleep. _"Alice... I couldn't even protect you from him, I'm so sorry."_

~Alice's Dream~

    The ground that Hitomi is standing on starts to give out as it crumbles from beneath her. She starts to fall and reaches out her hand to hold on to something, suddenly a brillant flash of light and someone is flying towards her. He takes her hand and smiles at her softly.

~End of Dream~

    Alice awakens to find Rin in her room with his wings outstretched and his feathers falling everywhere.

    "Rin...?"

    "Alice..." his voice sounded pained. "I'm so sorry, I couldn't stop him before he did that to you. You must hate me." he turned away from her in shame. 

    She watched his muscular frame standing there in a flurry of feathers. "What are you talking about? If it hadn't been for you, who knows how far he might have gone? You saved me. Not just from him, but you saved my life as well," she got off the bed and embraced his bare back, her arms encircling his chest and her head pressed to his back and feathers.

     "How could I ever hate you?"

    He turns around, still in her arms. He then wraps his arms around, "I was so scared, I thought I was going to lose you again." He tightens his grip around her, "When I saw you fall... my heart nearly stopped again." Then Hitomi's pendant started to glow again, enveloping the two in it's pink light and transforming the two into Van and Hitomi.

~As Van and Hitomi~

    "Oh Hitomi, how I waited to so long to see you again," Van muttered into her hair.

    "Van... You helped Rin save me, didn't you?" he nodded. "I've been waiting for the day where we could talk again! I always wanted to ask you... before we were reincarnated, you wanted to say something... What was it?"

    Van took a deep breath and pulled Hitomi slightly away from him so he could look at her. She looked back up at him, "Well?"

    Another long pause, Hitomi patiently waited for his answer.

    "It was this," and with that he bent down and softly kissed her on the lips. She kissed him back and wrapped her arms around his neck as he wrapped his around her waist. They broke apart and he whispered in her ear, "Aishiteru... For so long, I've been in love with you. When you left, I never got the chance to tell you how I really felt, but now, I've been given the chance to tell you, to tell you that I love you. That was my wish." 

    "I love you too, I never want to let you go!" Hitomi then pulled him into another passionate kiss.

    _"Finally, what we've kept in our hearts for so long is free. We're finally together. Even though we're dead, we live on in the atmosphere of this world. Here, we can watch over Gaea and the Earth. Our wish is finally fulfilled. Now our spirits can be together forever. Even if we die, I know that we'll always meet again, no matter what life, no matter what form. Aishiteru... Van."_

    Then Van and Hitomi's spirit once again left Rin and Alice's body, leaving them in a passionate kiss. They broke apart uncomfortably.

    "Umm, are you OK? Are you hurt physically?" Rin asked, she shakes her head no. "Let's go for a walk."

    Rin throws on a shirt before they head out. When they got to the entrance of the building they saw Enju and Jinpachi kissing.

    "Ahem!" Alice interuppted.

    The two quickly break apart looking flustered, "Are you two together now?" Alice asked excitedly. They nod their heads while blushing. She congratulates them, then she notices that Chiyo is gone and asks where she is. They both answer the same answer, she went back to where she belonged. (if you're confused, I mean her spirit is free now). Enju then asks where Ken is. Rin and Alice don't answer at first, their minds go back to the nightmarish incident. When they finally speak, they answer the same way: He's where he belongs. 

  


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**A Few Authors Notes**

    Well, that's a lot shorter than my other chapters. I plan for the next two chapters to be the end. I think I wrote this chapter better than any of the others so far. It's a bit darker with the mention of rape in it though (if you didn't get that, well now you do). The next chapters will sum it up, and then I'll write an epilogue or include into the last chapter. 

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     E-mail me with questions at: foolishchild5@aol.com 


	8. Wish Unfulfilled

Wish Unfulfilled **Wish Unfulfilled**

     Well please enjoy and Please Read and Review once more.

**A Reminder on the Characters...**

Kanzaki Hitomi is Sakaguchi Alice (Arisu)  
Van de Fanel is Kobayashi Rin (Ring)  
Allen Schezar is Ogura Jinpachi  
Millerna ? is Nishikiori Enju (OK, so the original name was Nishikiori Issei, but that was a guy, so I'm changing it. His past life name was, Enju, and YES he was a women reborn as a MAN!)  
For the record: when this story started, Alice and company were 16, now the last chapter was 6 months after the begininng of the story. They were in the 11th grade and the begininng of this chapter starts 6 months AFTER the last, meaning they've come along one full year of school, meaning they are now in the 12th grade and are the seniors at their school. 

(writing) - things in parentheses are my notes and thoughts  
_writing_ - words in italics are what the characters thinking or flashbacks  
Disclaimer: I don't own Escaflowne or anything of Please Save My Earth for that matter. 

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    It had been a year since Rin came to Tokyo, by now he was quite happy in his new life. He had his friends: Jinpachi, Enju, and... Alice. Actually... he had hoped that one day he and Alice could be something more than friends, but the time never seem quite right. Jinpachi and Enju had finally gotten together 6 months before, and though he was happy for the two, he couldn't help but feel a tinge of jealousy. They looked sickeningly happy together, and he wanted what they had more than anything, but he just couldn't work up the nerve to ask her. It was his fault really, he couldn't bring himself to confess his feelings for her. They'd known each other for a year already, and they got along really well, and he really really liked her. He wasn't sure how she felt about him, but he was sure of his feelings for her. The thing is, he was to scared to hear her reaction to his feelings. It would absolutely kill him to find out that she didn't feel the same way back. It would've been even worst if she didn't want to see him again. He just couldn't bear that, and just jumbled up his emotions inside.

**Chapter 08 Drifting Away**

    "Yeah! We're finally in the 12th grade!" Enju cried happily.

    "What's so great about being at the top of the school now? It just means that everyone will be going away, it's a bit sad even," Alice said.

    "Ohhh, why do you have to look at the downside of graduating? Even if it's the end of something, it means it's the begininng of another! By the way, where have you decided to apply for (college)?" Enju asked.

    "I was thinking Toudai (Tokyo University), I'd always had my eye set on going there ever since I was little."

    "Hmm, maybe I'll do some traveling before I go to college, or maybe I just won't go at all!" this caused Alice to gasp; "Just kidding, just kidding. I can't become a doctor if I don't go to college, and that IS my dream, but it doesn't mean I can't put it on hold until I've had time to enjoy the world," she stated.

    "If you do travel the world, will you go with Jinpachi?" Alice asked slyly.

    At this Enju's cheeks tinted a nice shade of rose, "That's none of your business."

    Alice giggled at her friends behavior, the two were just such a cute couple!

    "So, what about Rin? Where's he going?" she asked, startling her out of her thoughts.

    "I don't know. He says he was planning on going to Toudai too, but he's not too sure as to where he might really end up," a bit of sadness seeping into her voice.

    "If he goes back to Hokkaido, will you follow him?"

    "Eh?"

    "I said 'will you follow him?' ever since you guys met, you guys have been together more than Jinpachi and I have. It would be awfully hard to seperate from someone like that," she added.

    "We don't spend that much time together! I don't know what you're talking about, besides, I lead my own life and I only want to go to Toudai, I don't care where he plans to go" she said defensively.

    _"Hmm,"_ Enju thought. _"Will it really be alright if the two seperate? I know she really likes him a lot, even if she won't admit it. Is she willing to forget about him if he up and leaves?"_

    Alice kept her emotions inside as they walked to school in silence.

    _"Even though I said that... I don't want to be away from him. I know I said I didn't care... but I do. Would I really be able to say good-bye to him?"_ she pictured his face in her mind and let out a long sigh.

    Just by some strange luck, the four of them had ended up with the same homeroom again. They were eating lunch in the class and discussing their future plans again.

    "Eh!? You're going to America? How long?" Enju asked.

    "Well I have some relatives there and I want to visit them once school ends. I only plan to stay a couple of months, nothing too long term, but I'm not too sure" Jinpachi said.

    "But-but what about us?! We'll be seperated for so long, there were so many things I wanted to see and do with you, now you're just going to leave me? You're so cruel!" Enju cried. 

    "Now don't cry Enju! Jeez, we still have the time to do all the things you wanted. We just won't be able to do them in Japan," he consoled.

    Enju blinked her tears back, "Eh-?"

    "I'm saying I want you to come with me."

    "Eh-?"

    "I'm saying I want you to stay with me, in America," he said with his eyes closed and arms crossed.

    _"Wow... That sounds almost like a proposal to me! How far have they gone? All the way to 'C' maybe!?"_ Alice thought.

(For those who don't understand, 'C' is like the base in dating, meaning sex.)

    Enju sat there for a moment, completely speechless and blushing, "So will you come with me?" he asked.

    She waited another moment before she nodded her head in happiness, "Mmm..." she agreed, smiling.

    _"It's still a long way away, but the future will come soon, and I can't wait!"_ Enju thought happily.

    Alice watched her friends face turn from sadness to sheer delight. She frowned, she was glad the two were going to be together, but where did that leave her? Alone most likely. She glanced at Rin, thinking about how lonely it would be when he probably was going to leave her. She frowned and her face must have taken an upset expression because Rin asked what was wrong. She shook her head, saying it was nothing and just went back to staring at her food. Rin could always seem to sense when she was troubled, it was something she really liked about him, but she didn't want him to know what she had been thinking. He put his arm around her shoulder and turned her to face him. He looked straight into her eyes.

    "Come on, don't hide anything from me. I can tell when your upset," he said kindly. His eyes were looking at her so tenderly that she nearly dropped her chopsticks.

    "Really, it's nothing. I just don't feel to good that's all," she said weakly.

    He looked at her questioningly, but seemed satisfied for now with her answer; "Well don't stress yourself out to much then, OK? Don't want to miss a single minute of our senior year!" she nodded absentmindedly.

    Back at home, Alice dropped her stuff in her room and plopped down on her bed. She looked up at the ceiling above. Again she was overcomed by a wave of lonliness. _"Again... it's that same feeling I've been having for a while now. What is it? Why do I feel so sad? It hurts... this lonliness. My heart is aching and I don't understand why."_ She quietly fell asleep on top of her covers with her windows opened.

    Alice quickly begins to dream. She was dreaming about Gaea again. She hadn't had those dreams every since Ken disappeared. It was a sad dream, Hitomi was back on Earth. She kept seeing things that reminded her of Van. She was so sad. Then she decided to go back. At the sight of Van, Hitomi's eyes light up and she runs toward him, taking his hand. Then, she wakes up.

    Alice rubs her eyes from the sleep._"What was that all about? I haven't had those dreams since the last time I turned into Hitomi. Are they trying to tell me something? My heart feels a bit soothed after that though. In that dream... I felt the same sadness that Hitomi did. It was the same as what I'm feeling right now, but after she went back to Van... that feeling was replaced with something else. I can't quite put my finger on it but... it's been a long time since I felt like that."_ she shivers and sneezes. She gets up and wraps her arms around herself. At this rate she really was going to get sick. She picked up her towel and went into the bathroom. She turned the water on hot and crawled in, the warm water washing over her body and soothing her mind. Her mind flashed back to the scene in the dream where Hitomi saw Van again, and she smiled happily without even knowing why. "Well, feeling all depressed is getting me nowhere and only making me feel worst. Alright! No more dwelling on the bad things in life! I'm going to have the best senior year ever!" 

    She got out of the shower and went back to her room. She toweled her head dry a bit and put on her PJ's, laying the towel on her pillow she went back to sleep with a smile on her face. Next morning Alice woke up with a fever. The doorbell rang and she groggily got up to answer it, her head swimming. When she answered, it was Rin at the door.

     When he caught sight of her he started his lecture, "See, I told you to take it easy or you'd get sick."

    "Sorry, but it was because I fell asleep with my hair wet and the window opened. Now I have a fever and my head is..." at this she started to feel even more queasy and gripped onto the wall to gain some balance.

    Rin pushed her back into her apartment and took her by the elbow, "You need to rest, or you could make yourself worst."

    Alice groaned and followed him in a daze to her room. She fell onto her bed and rolled over onto the pillow, eyes already half-way closed and drifting into sleep. Rin took her covers and pulled them over her. 

    "What am I going to do with you? Drink lot's of liquids and rest up. I'll bring your work for you later, OK?" he said as he was getting up to leave the room. Alice muttered a quick 'yes' before going completely into sleep. He watched her for a few seconds, her cheeks flushed and eyes closed. He bent toward her face and until he felt her breath on his own face. He quickly kissed her on the cheek and whispered 'sweet dreams' and left the room, afraid she'd catch him.

    So when he got to school he told Jinpachi and Enju that Alice had gotten sick.

    "Poor Alice! Why don't we go and nurse her back to health!" Enju suggested enthusiastically.

    "Don't go bothering sick people! She's trying to rest Ok?" Jinpachi berrated.

    "That's Ok, I'll take care of her. I've already gotten her today's assignments so I'll be by her place anyways," Rin commented.

    "But-" Enju started, but was cut off by Jinpachi stare._"Oh yeah!"_ "Well you take good care of her then."_ "Hmm, alone together with no one home! Maybe those two will finally get together, takes them long enough. Jeez, it's already been a year. Can't Alice see the poor boys feelings? Well here's his chance, he'll be nursing her so anything could happen..."_

    Alice opened her eyes from a long good hours of sleep. She sighed. After a little rest she felt a little better, but still light headed. She had a dream. Rin had kissed her and said 'sweet dreams', but that was just a dream. Or was it? She couldn't quite remember. Oh well, it doesn't matter anyway, who'd kiss a sick person? She snugged under her covers and closed. Her mind went back to the thought of Rin kissing her and she smiled, her flushed cheeks growing even more red and warm by the passing thought._"Ah! What am I thinking? Rin's my friend, he couldn't have kissed me."_ She thought about some more, and the thought of that kiss that she "dreamed" couldn't have possibly happened made her feeling a pang in her stomach. _"It's a good thing he didn't kiss you, you don't want him to get sick now do you? Nothing to get upset about. It's not like it's a big deal. We've kissed before... but that was always as Van and Hitomi. Do I... want him to kiss me...?"_

    Suddenly a voice rang through the door, disturbing her thoughts, "Alice, it's me Rin. Can I come in?"

    _"Oh! He's here."_ flustered at having him there suddenly, she managed to muster the voice to call him in. 

    "Hey, how are you feeling? I got your school work. I brought you some food, did you eat yet?" he asked, coming into her room.

    Alice looked at his face and imagined him leaning over and kissing her. For a second she forgot to move and answer him, until he started talking again; "Are you hungry?"

    These words snapped her out of her dream world and she nodded her head to say yes. He didn't seem to notice anything strange with her, but she felt really self-concious of herself. As if he might have some way known about her thoughts of him, even though he couldn't have. 

    "Here. I brought you some tea, it's supposed to be good for fevers," he handed her a thermos of bitter looking tea.

    Alice took one wiff of the strong smelling tea and immediately turned it her head away. The smell was so bitter, no doubt the taste was even more bitter than it's smell. She shook her head, not wanting to drink her tea.

    "Come on now, it's supposed to make you feel better. I know it tastes horrible, but you only have to drink it once. Alright?" he said, sitting on the edge of her bead.

    She nodded her head and swiftly drank down the worst tasting tea in her life. She nearly gagged as she tried to swallow it. "W-water..."

    Rin gave her some water and put down some food in front of her as she drank away the bitter taste._"After that I don't know if I have much of an appetite anymore..."_ Alice thought, looking at the food below her.

    "Are you going to eat? You need to eat something you know? Here," he said, taking a rice ball and held it up for her. She bit into it and chewed. Finally she realized something, _"Oh my god! He's feeding me! Just now, it was like from a love scene from a movie."_ As if he realized the same thing she had, Rin blushed red and handed her the rest of the food and told her to eat it herself while he got a wet towel and thermometer. As she ate, the scene kept coming back to her. It was like as if they were a couple! She ate about half the food and then put it away. Rin came back a moment later with a thermometer and a tub of water and a hand towel. 

    "Here." he said, as he stuck the thermometer in her mouth. She sat there awkwardly until it seemed Rin took the thermometer from her mouth. 99.01 degrees. She still had a fever, but it wasn't as worst as it was that morning. He told her to lie down and dipped the towel in the tub of cold water. He then gently took the towel and dabbed her forehead with it. The cool water trickled down the side of her face as she relaxed and just closed her eyes. 

    "That... feels good..." Alice trailed off as she closed her eyes once more and slowly started to fall asleep again. Rin gently brought his fingers to her face and played with the hair surrounding her eyes. He re-wet her towel and sat by her bed on the floor, with his head on her bed as he too, slowly fell asleep.

Later on that evening...

    Alice slowly stirred as she began to wake up from her slumber. She breathed in deeply and smelled the fresh scent of a field. She then opened her eyes to find Rin sleeping soundly beside her head, his dark hair laid unruly upon his sleeping eyes. She smiled at his peaceful face and rested her eyes once more, just lying there and feeling his breath on her. She watched him sleep for awhile, how long, she can't tell. _"Somehow... When I'm with you I feel at ease."_ She took the thermometer again and stuck it in her mouth. She sat up in the bed to be able to read it, stirring Rin out of his sleep.

    "Hmm? Has your temperature gone down yet?" he reached over and felt her forehead, causing Alice to feel warm in her cheeks, "well, you still seem a little warm and your cheeks are still red."

    Alice was well aware of his cold hand on her cheek and felt embarrassed. If only he knew the real reason for why her cheeks were so red! "I feel better now, thanks. Maybe if my fever comes all the way down I'll be able to go back to school tomorrow."

    "Oh yeah! Almost forgot to tell you, there's a new guy again. He's in our homeroom, I think his name was Aki," he said.

    "Oh, another new student, huh? Guess I'll have to show them around too. (remember she's their class president)" she said.

    "No real need to. He says he used to live here and that he just moved back. So he probably knows where everything is, he even used to go to our school when he was a freshman," he replied.

    "Well if I'm going to be able to go to school tomorrow and meet this new guy I'm going to have to make a 24-hour recovery. I'm going back to sleep. I think I'll be alright now, you can go home if you want," she told him.

    "Are you sure?" he asked worried.

    "I'll be fine, besides, it would be pretty boring if you just watched me sleep all day. I'll see you tommorow, OK?" she said.

    "It's not boring at all!" she looked surprised and he quickly covered his blunder, "I mean, I fell asleep too so... Anyway, I guess I'll just leave now. See you soon." 

~Next Day~

    Alice was feeling much better in the morning so she decided she was going to go to school, after all, she couldn't be absent for too long. She changed into her uniform and went to find Rin to walk to school with. Then she and he set out together. 

    "Are you sure you should be out of bed so soon?" he asked.

    "It's fine, it's fine! I'm stronger than I look," she smiled warmly at him, "thanks for taking care of me again. It's nice to know you're there for me."

     He took one look at her smiling face and it sent butterflies swirling in his stomache. If only she knew the effect she had on him! If only he could just tell her how he felt... but then again, he was always pretty bad at expressing his feelings. Every time he tried to show his feelings for her, the same feeling of butterflies came into his stomache and made him so nervous. Through his shaking emotions he was finally able to mutter a 'it's ok'.

    They were nearing Enju's building, but they weren't going to pick her up, she usually walked with Jinpachi alone anyways. As they passed by, a young boy stepped out the doors of the apartment building. He had dark-black hair, and a well chiseled face. His eyes were the color of deep-violet and his movements were graceful with each step he took, well assured and confident. He immediately caught Alice's attention and her eyes washed over the boy, her watch going unnoticed. Suddenly he turned and looked straight at her, which startled her, and then he smiled which startled her even more. She smiled back.

    "What are you looking at?"

    "Eh? Oh nothing, nothing at all!" she lied.

    Rin looked at her, "You know... that kid we just passed by, he's the new guy."

    "Really?!" her voice came out in a high-pitch, "I mean, really?" she said calmly this time.

    "Yeah, you'll get a chance to meet him when we get to class."

~At School~

    At school Rin waited for Enju and Jinpachi to arrive while Alice went to get her make-up work. It turns out she didn't miss too much the day before. 

    "Ahh! It's nice to know I don't have to make-up too much work, I've already got my homework so that's good," she sat next to Rin by the door to wait for their friends to arrive. Rin was being exceptionally quiet that day. He hadn't said much since she came to his apartment to pick him up for school. In fact, he didn't look that well either, maybe he caught her fever.

    "Hey, are you ok? You don't look to good, are you sure you I didn't get you sick?" she said, feeling his forehead with her hand. He blushed and didn't say anything, "Hmm, you don't feel too warm, but you haven't said much and you seem kind of spacey."

    "I'm not spacey."

    "I'm just teasing you that's all," she assured, "oh, there they are now."

    Then at that they joined their friends. They were chatting away when suddenly Alice remembered she forgot to take her newly washed gym clothes to her locker, so she scurried away with her clothes in hand, leaving her friends in a whirlwind of confusion.

    _"I hope sensei doesn't come to class before I get back. Ohhhh, I'll be late! Ok, gotta run faster!"_

    Alice ran at a rapid pace towards that lockers, being a track star and all, she was going far faster than anyone should ever run in the halls. Suddenly...

    **BAMMM!**

    Alice ran smack-dab right into someone, throwing her completlely off balance and hurling her bundle of gym clothes in all directions.

    She quickly got up and started apologizing to her unknown victim, "I'm sorry! I was runnning so fast I didn't even notice you. Are you alright? Damn, my stuff is all scattered now!"

    "It's alright," the boy said. "I wasn't really watching where I was going either."

    _"Eh!"_"You're that guy I saw this morning coming to school."

    "Hmm... Did we meet yesterday?" he asked gently as he started helping her gather back her clothes. She shakes her head 'no'. "I didn't think so. I think I would have remembered you if we had met. I'm Furusuke Aki, I used to go to school here." 

    "I'm Sakaguchi Alice, I'm class president, I was absent yesterday. Nice to meet you," Alice held out her hand to shake and he did the same.

    When they're hands touched, a tiny bit of electricity could be felt between the two. They quickly pulled away. "Here, I'll wait for you. We're both probably going to be late anyways," he said. 

    "Jeez! What's taking Alice so long to get back? At this rate she really is going to be late!" Enju cried, at that exact moment the door rustled and Alice walked in with Aki.

    _"Eh!? What's Alice doing with **him**?"_ Rin thought in surprise.

    Alice apologized to Aki one more time and sat back down with her friends. Enju snuck her way to Alice's side and began to question her on her new friend; "So... I see you met the new guy. How awfully chummy you two look! What happened!? What's going on!?"

    "Nothing really," was her calm reply, at that moment the teacher came in and class started. Rin tried to concentrate on his work, but his mind kept trailing back to image of Alice walking in with the new guy. Enju was right. They had looked chummy. It **definately** bothered him, especially when Alice was made to sit with him because he was "new". He was upset. He watched her smile at him, and he back at her. He couldn't help but feel a horrible bubbling feeling deep inside of him. Wait... Was he jealous!? Certainly not! If Alice wanted to make a new friend, he wasn't going to stop her. He turned his head away from the site of the two smiling at each other in disgust, but almost as if by some strange pull, he found himself watching them again, getting even more jealous by the minute.

    Alice was talking nicely to Aki, it was strange. He felt strangely familiar in some way, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Suddenly she felt a chill run down her back. She turned in her seat came face to face with the Rin's gaze. He looked angry. What was he so mad about? She'd have to beat it out of him later.

    Rin was sitting with his lunch in front of him just nibbling on his food, so Alice decided to scare him a bit. He was so easy to surprise that it was just too hilarious! She slowly crept up to him from behind, then she suddenly wrapped her arms around his neck in a tight hug and shouted 'Boo!' He jumped in his seat and glared at her as she tried to stifle a laugh which was bubbling up. 

    "Don't always do that, we're in school here!" he complained after his heart had settled down from the scare. 

    "You should have seen your face! It was really too funny," she giggled as she stole a piece of tempura from his lunch and sat next to him and unearthed her own lunch.

    _"Jeez, why does she always have to do that? It might be funny for her but in public it makes me look like a wuss."_ His mind flashed back to when a pair of slender arms suddenly wrapped themselves around him and blushed. Sure it was nice to have her arms around him, but she was only doing it be funny. Oh what he'd give to have her put her arms around him and kiss him! But that too, was just a dream for him. He would never have the nerve to tell her his true feelings, and it probably wasn''t likely that she felt the same. She probably saw him as her big brother, someone dependable who you could turn to for a good cry. That's what he was, a shoulder to lean on. How he wanted to change that though! He wanted to be the one by her side always. Sad. Happy. Angry. Or just smiling her sweet encouraging smile, but it was that same encouraging smile that always made him lose his courage and rendered him speechless. Was it doomed for him to keep these feelings inside forever?

    Suddenly Rin's thoughts were interrupted by a third party joining them at the table. He looked up and saw Aki pulling up his chair next to Alice. He frowned, why did he always have to tag around her like some stray dog? Alice, however, didn't seem to mind the least. Aki and Alice then started a conversation about track, turns out he was on the track team and had joined up again this year.

    "Finally! Someone to walk with to practice," Alice said in relief.

    Rin made a sour look with his face, "I walk you to practice every time."

    "True, but now I have another track team member to go with me," she said lightly.

    All day after that, all Rin could think about was Alice walking with that jerk. Ok, so maybe he didn't really know him and didn't have any arguement that he was a jerk, but he seemed to be slowly taking Alice away from him, and that made him very jealous. 

Two Weeks Later...

    Lately ever since Aki had moved to their class, he had been spending every minute of his time with her. This left Rin feeling terribly left out. He felt hurt that she could just toss him aside like that, he hardly even saw her anymore because she was helping Aki catch up to all stuff they were supposed to know by that time in their senior year. 

    "Rin," Alice said as they were walking to school that day, "want to study together today?"

    This took Rin by surprise, as he and Alice hadn't studied together in a long while. He nodded, "Sure."

    "Ok, we'll just walk back together and we'll study at your place," she said.

    Rin smiled to himself as Alice continued to talk and tuned her out. Finally he would have some time with her without that 'guy' around her. So that day after school they walked back together to his apartment. They brought out their math books and started to study (after all, they need to take the entrance exam for college too). Rin was stuck. Math wasn't always his favorite subject, and now he was having a little difficulty. He knitted his brow trying to concentrate, but it just wouldn't come to him. So he decided to ask Alice to help him.

    "Hmmm... This is a toughie," she replied leaning over to him to get a look at the problem in his book. As her head came near his face he caught a whiff or her hair making him swoon. It was like the faint smell of fragrant flowers, not too strong, yet still sweet. 

    Alice peered at the problem. She should be able to know how to do this one, but she couldn't quite remember. Suddenly the bell rang to Rin's apartment, "Oh, that must be him." 

    Him? Rin thought as Alice rushed to the door. A few seconds later she returned with the visitor. It was Furusuke Aki. He wore a look of bewilderment on his face as he Aki sat down in a chair. Snapping himself back to the real world, he dragged Alice by the arm and took her out to the living room where they couldn't be heard.

    "What is _he_ doing here?" he asked, annoyed.

    "What do you mean? I told you about it this morning, didn't you hear me?" she asked him.

    Rin fell silent. He hadn't. 

    "But did I give any consent to inviting him too?" he asked angrily.

    "What's wrong with asking him to come? He's my friend," she cried getting angry from his own anger.

    "He follows you around like a lost puppy! I don't like him and I refuse to have him here, so he has to go!" he demanded.

    What was going on? Why was Rin acting like this she thought. Gone was her best friend who'd gently nursed her when she was sick. Gone was the the tender look that used to linger in his eyes that was now replaced with hate. Now she was seething, how selfish he was being. All of a sudden she pulled back her hand and slapped him square on the cheek. He instantly shut up, shocked.

    "What do you think you're doing? You're acting so goddamned immature!" she declared, her voice rising.

    "I'm not being immature, he likes you Alice, can't you see that?" he said in equal volume.

    "You're being ridiculous, he's my friend, and if you don't like that then you're not the person that I thought you were. _ We're_ leaving," she stated "Aki, it seems like were not wanted here," she said and started packing up her books, "we'll go to the library then."

    "Umm, okay..." a confused Aki consented.

    After Rin heard the slam of the door he keeled over onto the couch. Her slap and words were like a hurricane had just ran over him. It left him defenseless and unsure. Then he kicked himself, he had just drove the person that he cared about the most away from him... drove her right in front of the one guy he hated most. Why was he always so _stupid_!?

    Alice stormed out of Rin's apartment dragging Aki along with the hold of his sleeve. She was seething, what had gotten over him? Could he really be that jealous of Aki? ... Jealous? Could he be? Why? They really were... just friends... right...?

    "Um, Alice, you're hurting me a bit here," Aki interrupted.

    That brought Alice back down to Earth, "Oh, I'm sorry. I just got a little carried away."

    "Did you have a fight with Rin?" he asked.

    "I guess it would be called a fight," she said sadly, "it was such a stupid fight! I don't understand why he has to be so pigheaded sometimes."

    "Was it because of me? Because I came over?"

    Flustered, Alice tried to think fast. She didn't want him to think that they were fighting because of him, even though they had been. She must have been thinking at a snail's pace, because Aki stated "it was, wasn't it?" 

    It seemed that the very memory made Alice boil over again, she suddenly burst out in a flurry of speech, "he was so immature. He got so jealous because I asked you to come. I told him that there was nothing between us but he kept insisting that you liked me," Aki stopped walking as Alice continued to talk, "Can you believe him? How stupid! Huh? Why'd you stop walking for?" 

    Alice turned around to face him, he was looking at her hard in the eyes, "What's the matter?" she asked.

    "You know, you might have thought the idea of me liking you is foolish, but it's not. Rin can see that, and he got scared and jealous..." he said firmly.

    His words hit her like a wave, was he saying what she thought he was saying? Was Rin right?

    "No, you can't mean that! We're frie-"

    "I love you!" he cut in. 

    She stopped, "I love you... but do you love me? You thought the idea that I loved you was absurd, but it's true."

    Alice just stood there, unsure of what to say. Aki had just hit her with a love confession, one that she had strongly denied to Rin. 

    "I love you," he said again, "and I want you to be my girlfriend." 

  


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**A Few Authors Notes**

    Ohhh... A fight. Well I finally finished this chapter after so long, what did you think? Was it Ok? I wrote this all during different time so it might seem terribly fragmented, gomen! You don't really have to pay attention to that horrible junk I wrote at the beginning, I like this ending part much better. So what will Alice say to this startling love confession? Stick around to find out! 

* * *

  
     E-mail me with questions at: foolishchild5@aol.com 


	9. Shifting Paths

Shifting Paths **Shifting Paths**

     Well please enjoy and Please Read and Review once more.

**A Reminder on the Characters...**

Kanzaki Hitomi is Sakaguchi Alice (Arisu)  
Van de Fanel is Kobayashi Rin (Ring)  
Allen Schezar is Ogura Jinpachi  
Millerna ? is Nishikiori Enju (OK, so the original name was Nishikiori Issei, but that was a guy, so I'm changing it. His past life name was, Enju, and YES he was a women reborn as a MAN!)  
For the record: when this story started, Alice and company were 16, now the last chapter was 6 months after the begininng of the story. They were in the 11th grade and the begininng of this chapter starts 6 months AFTER the last, meaning they've come along one full year of school, meaning they are now in the 12th grade and are the seniors at their school. 

(writing) - things in parentheses are my notes and thoughts  
_writing_ - words in italics are what the characters thinking or flashbacks  
Disclaimer: I don't own Escaflowne or anything of Please Save My Earth for that matter. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* **Chapter 09 Shifting Paths**

Flashback

    "I love you and I want you to be my girlfriend." Aki announced.

End of Flashback

    Alice sighed and dropped her head to her desk. What a day it had been. Aki had confessed his love to her. She thought back to that conversation...__

    "I love you and I want you to be my girlfriend."

    Alice was shocked and tried to muster a feeble answer, "But-but..."

    "You don't have to answer me right away, but I want you to think about it. I want you to ask yourself if you can love me, and be sure that I'm the only one you could love. I don't want you lying to yourself about your true feelings so that you don't have to hurt me."

    "What do I do Enju?" she asked over the phone, "I don't know what to tell him."

    Enju's sharp voice came back from the other side, "That's easy, if you don't like him 'no', if you do like him 'yes'. You do like him don't you?"

    "Yeah, but I don't know if I like him in _that_ way," she answered nervously.

    "What about Rin? He was right about him wasn't he? You should apologize."

    "Why should I apologize!? I was right and he was wrong! Besides, I seriously didn't think that Aki-kun had feelings for me at the time," she retorted.

    "Well then what are you going to tell him?"

    "I don't know... he was right but what do I say?" she questioned.

    "No, no, no! Not Rin, I'm talking about Aki!" Enju cried.

    "Oh.. I'm not sure, and I know he's waiting for my answer so I shouldn't make him wait. Oh what am I going to do!?" she wailed.

    "Take it easy. Just think about what you want and your options, and give it a nights rest and think about it in the morning with a clear head, so go to sleep now, ok?"

    Alice nodded even though she couldn't see her and hung up and laid her head atop her pillow. _"What I want..."_

    "What do I want? Do I really want to become Aki-kun's girlfriend? He's really kind and we have a lot in common... Maybe he's the right one for me. He's dependable, cute, and he doesn't jump to conclusions like a certain "someone" I know...! But it's not like that certain "someone" isn't dependable, he's always been there for me, and he's really very gentle and can be really sweet at times." Alice closed her eyes and pictured Rin in her mind, "_I never really realized it before... but Rin's actually really quite good-looking. Why didn't I ever notice? I've been his companion for over a year and I never really noticed how good he really looks. Come to think about it, Rin's never even had girlfriend since he's moved here... I'm sure there must be dozens of girls jumping for the chance to go out with him, so why doesn't he take one of them?"_

    By now Alice's mind was racing with thoughts , if she kept thinking these things, she'd never be able to relax her mind and fall asleep. With great struggle, she managed to slow down her thoughts and retreat to the world of dreams.

    The sun peaked through the thin fabric of Alice's curtains and roused her from her deep sleep. She sat up and put her hand to her forehead. What a strange dream she had had, it was so strange. It was another dream of Gaea, it was the time where she and Van were together in the windmill, but this time she could see his face as he sharpened his sword. She had watched as Van struggled to voice his feelings, and watched as it came out horribly wrong. Then she saw the last time Van and Hitomi had been together, after Hitomi had left, Van turned to her and they took a walk. By some strange magic, the forests of Fanelia turned into the modern streets of Tokyo. She had walked a little ways ahead of him and turned around. Instead of seeing the dark haired king, she saw Aki. What was the meaning of the dream? Was her mind telling her that Aki could be her Van? She gave her decision another thought and decided to stick with it. She got ready and left for school. As she stepped out the door she glanced next door. The spot where Rin usually stood waiting for her was quietly empty, and she walked on pass to the elevator.

    In the apartment next door, Rin had made up his mind. He decided he'd apologize to Alice the night before. He didn't want her mad at him, and he wanted to be near her again, and he most certainly couldn't be around her if she wasn't speaking to him. That night he had also made another decision; he was going to tell Alice how he felt. It was the only way she could understand why he reacted the way he had. He held his breath and walked out the door. Just as he stepped out of the apartment, he caught a glimpse of Alice's figure as the elevator door closed and descended. Damn, he had missed his chance. He could run down the flight of stairs and catch up with her, but the wild beating of his tense heart was making him very nervous. Maybe he'd wait till he got to school and told her. 

    Alice got to class a few minutes before it would start. She noticed both Aki and Rin had not arrived yet. It didn't matter, it would give her time to calm her beating heart. As if by pure chance, both of the boys entered the classroom at the same time. Alice looked transfixed at the two, it was as if fate had put the two next to each other for her to compare. In the narrow doorway she could see how much they looked alike. Same dark hair, the same intense eyes, and skin complexion. Yet they seemed so different, illuminated in the doorway, Aki radiated a more confident aura whereas Rin seemed a bit unsure and very jittery.

    A deep voice boomed from behind the boys, "Get in class or you'll be late!"

    It was the teacher. The two boys quickly skittered to their seats, and neither look very composed anymore in Alice's eyes. The teacher had moved Aki to the back of the room while Alice still sat up front. She would have to wait before she could give Aki her answer.

    Rin watched Alice tentively all through the first hours of class, the more he thought about confessing to her, the more nervous he became. Painful thoughts kept seeping there way into his brain. What if she didn't want to be friends anymore? What if she started to really hate him? What if she-

    "OK class, pass up your math homework," the teacher said.

    "Math homework...?" Rin muttered. Shit. He forgot to finish it yesterday. After Alice had stormed off, he couldn't concentrate on his work (and he still couldn't do that one problem he had asked her for help on). Everyone passed up their finished homework and the teacher thumbed through their homework, he stopped, "Kobayashi! Where's your homework?!" 

    "Um... uh... in that pile of homework?" what the hell was he saying?!

    "Nice try, Kobayashi. Lunch detention for you today."

    What? If he had lunch detention then he couldn't tell Alice at lunch. Things were just really going his way that day weren't they? Maybe if he caught Alice before she left for lunch he could talk to her, it was his only chance during school.

    As soon as the lunch bell rang, Rin headed towards Alice who sat in the front by the door. "Alice-" he started, but a strong hand clamped down on his shoulder and pulled him back.

    "And where do you think you're going?" the teacher asked.

    He stole one last glance at Alice and turned to the teacher defeated. He'd have to hope the teacher was in a good enough mood to let him out early on his detention.

    Alice walked briskly through the brightly lit halls, she caught site of Aki and moved towards him. He had caught site of her as well, and seeming to know exactly what she was going to say, he lead her outdoors to a secluded area where no one could hear them. 

    "I've been thinking about what you asked yesterday. No one has ever said they loved me, and it was quite a shock because I didn't expect or see it," she stopped, but continued; "but, I was really flattered and it made me happy and nervous at the same time. You're really nice to me and-"

    Aki cut her off, "OK, I see." she lifted her head a little to look at him better. "Well you can't say I didn't try, I hope-" 

    This time it was Alice who cut him off, "No, it's not what your thinking." 

    He stopped and peered at her questioningly.

    "In answer to your feelings... I'll be your girlfriend," at hearing this he smiled and she smiled back.

    She took his hand in hers and pulled him forward, "C'mon, I have to tell Enju and the others now."

    Rin sat in the desk impatiently, he was jumpy and he couldn't seem to stop moving even while sitting in a desk. He started bouncing around in his seat, the wait was nerve wracking! Suddenly he flung up his arms in an attempt to get rid of his excess energy and ended up flinging his desk and nearly hitting the teacher.

    "You seem very restless Kobayashi, maybe you shoud go outside and jog it out. I'll let you out from detention a little early," he said in a scared voice. 

    Without hesitation he dashed through the door in search of Alice. 

    "Ah! Congratulations you two!" Enju cried. "Finally this lonesome girl's found someone."

    "Jeez, Enu!" Alice exclaimed in embarrassment.

    "I'm really happy for you two, you really make a good looking couple," Jinpachi put in.

    Suddenly the bell rang to show that it was time to head back to class. As the two couples started heading back, Aki shyly took Alice's hand in his and held it. They were about to enter into the school building when Rin came whirling in around the corner and ran right into the group. The impact caused Alice to fall backwards onto the ground and Rin to fall on top of her.

    "Alice!" he cried, out of breath, "Where have you been? I've been looking all over for you. I have something I want to tell..." his voice trailed off as his eyes caught site of Alice holding Aki's hand, who was also sprawled on the floor. 

    "I have something I want to tell you too," she said, standing up. "Aki is my new boyfriend."

    _"What?! How? When? No...!"_

    "We better hurry and get to class," Alice said, she turned to Rin, "What was it that you wanted to tell me?"

    "Uh... um... I just wanted to say I'm sorry about yesterday," he somehow manage to muster up, "I was acting stupid I guess... C'mon now, we better get to class or we'll be late and I'll get another detention!" Rin then went into class without another word or glance back.

     "What's up with him?" Enju asked.

    _"I'm so stupid,"_ Rin thought, _"Here I thought there might have been a small chance that she could have feelings for me, but I guess I was wrong... Why didn't I ever tell her before, baka! baka! baka!"_

    "Is it me, or is Rin all tense about something?" Alice asked herself, pondering what could be troubling her good friend.

    As Rin was walking back home alone, all his mind could think about was Alice. How much he loved her. How much he wished he could just tell her. How much he had hoped that she somehow felt the same way. Despair wrapped around him like the way a person clingly wraps a blanket around them on a cold chilly night. It just wouldn't let go. It stayed in his mind and tormented him all the way home. It just hurt so much. As he neared the path to his apartment building he, spotted Alice and Aki in the front of the building. To his despair, they were holding hands and they looked happy. He saw them stop at the doorway, and they shyly let go of each others hand. A light pink rose into Alice's cheeks as she looked into Aki's eyes. As if to deliver a final blow to his breaking heart, Aki bent down slowly and kissed Alice on the lips goodbye. Before then, Rin's heart had been cracking beneath all the pain, but now it was completely shattered into a thousand tiny sharp pieces that were stabning at his insides. It was like a physical pain, he just couldn't look at them anymore and closed his eyes and averted his gaze. He waited till Aki left and Alice had entered the building before taking another step towards home. By now he was fighting the tears from spilling over. His gaze blurred and he wiped his eyes with the side of his arm. 

    "I won't cry," he kept repeating to himself as he unlocked the door to his dark and silent apartment, "it's my own fault. I shouldn't cry."

    He kept chanting these words to himself as he walked like a zombie to his bed and plopped down. He lay there for god knows how long until he noticed his sheets were wet.

    "Huh, what's this?" he said sadly to himself, "Why is my bed all wet?" he touched the side of his face, "When did my face become wet? Was it raining? Oh. They're tears. When did I finally start crying?"

    He stared at the tears that had fallen upon his fingers and let out a cry of turmoil and finally stopped trying to hold back the flow of tears...

    When Rin awoke the next morning, his whole face was puffy from crying and his whole body ached. It was if the sorrow that had eaten away at his heart and finished with it and had now started on the rest of his body. He had never felt as tired as he had at that moment. Each breath was like a deep struggle and his entire body felt hot, yet freezingly cold at the same time. His mind was totally off school, it felt like a complete blank. There was only the sound of his difficult breathing and the soreness of his facial features.

    "Rin...?" Alice called as she stepped into his apartment. It was deadly silent and all the lights were turned off and the curtains were left undrawn. It looked as if no one was home, but then she caught site of Rin's backpack.

    She tentively opened the door to his room and peered inside. What she saw mortified her. Rin was lying stark still ontop of his covers with his eyes glazed over. For a moment she thought he was dead, but he gave a low groan and she rushed over to him, tossing her bag to the ground.

    "Rin! Rin! What's wrong with you?" Rin softly released her name from his lips as a reply.

    She rolled him over and took a look at his swollen face. Could he have been crying? she thought. She put a hand softly to his face and gently went over his painful face. To him, her touch felt like heaven and he sighed in contentment and passed out with a happy thought in mind. It was obvious to Alice that he wouldn't be able to attend school that day, so she quickly pulled his covers over him and tucked him in and left. She would come back after school.

    As Rin lay asleep, he dreamt a dream...

    He lay in a state of non-moving consciousness in a blank, white world. His body was limp as it floated around in nothingness. He closed his eyes and when he reopened them slightly, he found Hitomi kissing him. Her kiss breathed the life back into his mind and body, as well as the blank world filled with nothingness. Suddenly the world rolled over withi lush green grass and the brightest, most beautiful flowers. The sun shone magnificently up above as he opened his eyes fully and he found her hands on both sides of his face and her head touching his own. He closed his eyes again, but this time when he reopened them, he found Alice was the one with her hands cupped around his face. 

    "Alice..." he whispered as he brought his own hands to her face and gave her a tender kiss. He was in perfect bliss...

    All day during class, Rin's condition troubled Alice gravely. She couldn't shake off the feeling that something was wrong, she was anxious to head back and check up on him. Her hands shook as she reached to flip the page to her textbook and she found Aki's hand planted on top of her trembling one. He gave her a worried look and asked her what was wrong.

    "It's Rin. I'm worried about him. This morning I found him looking like a dead man atop his bead. He wasn't even fully aware of my presence! Oh what could be wrong?" she cried.

    Sensing her deep concern he spoke up, "If you want, I could drive you back in my car back to your house and you can check up on him. Maybe that will help put your nerves at peace."

    She gave him a grateful look and squeezed his hand firmly. All she had to do was wait...

    Rin slept peacefully beneath his covers as he continued his joyous dream. He didn't want to wake up, he was so happy. 

    When lunch time came around, Alice got into Aki's car and they drove back to her apartment. All the way there, Alice began to become wracked with worry once more. Once the car pulled up to the building, she wasted no time getting out of the car and dashed up the stairs two at a time. She didn't take time for formalities like knocking, she just burst into his apartment and went straight to his room. All the way she had been praying that she would find him up and about his apartment, but to her utter dismay it was as dark and dreary as she had left it. In his room, Rin was lying dormant. She went over and shook him violently, desperately trying to wake him to soothe her fears and anxiety, but he still lay there, breathing in long quiet breaths. Her eyes darted at his alarm clock and noticed that it was nearly time to get back to school. She left his apartment and dashed back downstairs to where Aki was waiting.

    "How is he?" he asked.

    "He won't wake when I shake him! I can't possibly go back now. Please go back without me, I'll stay here," she said breathlessly.

    He nodded his head, "I'll come back after school, OK?"

    She nodded and just turned around and quickly ran back up the flight of stairs. She came back up to Rin's bedside and felt his head, he didn't feel sick, but the puffiness had still not left his face. She gripped his hand tightly in hers and hoped that he was alright, she didn't know what she would do if there was something wrong with him. She clasped his hand in both of hers and drew it in towards her head and prayed for him to awaken as she began to cry and struggle to keep up hope.

    Rin was quietly sitting with Alice in a garden of vivid red, yellows, and oranges. She turned to him shyly, her cheeks were a light pink color because she was blushing and he held her hand. He gave her another tender kiss which she returned.

    "Alice... Have I ever told you that I'm in love with you?" he whispered gently on her cheek. She smiled happily to herself and turned a bright red. She opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out of her mouth. Her lips were moving but nothing was coming out of her lips. He felt someone clasping he hand and he suddenly began to wake from his dream world. 

    He turned and saw his hand engulfed in the real Alice's hands and the leftover stain of her tears on her cheek. He gently lifted his other hand and wiped the tear that was at the brink of falling. Her eyes burst open as she looked at him and gasped. She still clung to his hand as she hovered above him.

    "Rin! Rin you're awake! Thank goodness," she was so overcome with relief that her body began to shake again. 

    "What's wrong? Why are you crying?" he asked tenderly.

    "You- You-..." she struggled, but she just couldn't speak. He put his hand to her cheek and caressed the side of her face. Her eyes opened in surprise at how gentle his touch was and she leaned into his hand.

    She leaned in closer to his face, "Did I ever tell you..." he whispered, her eyes opened to look into his, "that I love you...?" his words trailed off as he raised his face to hers in the same light yet tender kiss he had given her in his dream. "I love you so much..." he whispered, and then he was out again. Alice froze there, shocked. She could still feel the warm touch of his lips on hers and she brought her fingers to her lips and felt them.

    "Rin!" she cried. She shook him trying to awaken him once more, but it was no use. "No... What's wrong? Why won't you open your eyes and look at me? ... Look at me lovingly again.... touch my face gently again... kiss me tenderly again... " she pleaded, but his eyes remained shut.

    Why? Why didn't he ever tell her? Was that what he was trying to tell her? That he loved her? But what had she done? She went and got together with some other guy. When did she grow to love him so much? She stroked his face pleadingly. Why didn't she notice how much she really loved him? Why did she agree to be Aki's girlfriend? That must have been the reason why he was always so jealous. Suddenly she heard a honk of a car horn outside and she peered out the window. It was Aki. She walked down slowly to the front door, she had to break up with him. She wasn't being fair to him this way.

    Aki took one look at her face, and it was as if he knew what she was going to say. She started to speak but he cut her off. 

    "Don't worry, I understand. I guess I always kind of knew..." he said sadly as he embraced her one last time.

    "I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry... You deserve someone who loves you with their whole heart," she said, hugging him back.

    "Yeah... I'm just disappointed that person wasn't you..." he trailed off. 

    There they just stood for what seemed like forever, but it was really only about a minute, because Alice's worry for Rin made her want to go back.

    Alice manuevered her way up the stairs faster than humanly possible and went back to Rin's bed side. Just looking at his deathly still faced pained her so much. She took his face in her hands and ran her fingers along the intricate lines of his face, hoping that they would burst into life. Nothing happened, nothing was happening. Why wouldn't he wake up? He finally told her he loved her, so why wasn't he there to recieve her love? The tears burned once again in Alice's as they fell atop his face. Hitomi's pendant glowed with a faint pink light, and it seemed like the light was rapidly fading away...

    "Come on! Wake up! When am I going to get the chance to tell you I love _you_?!" she cried angrily while grasping his hand. She gasped at how cold his hands were, and they seemed to be losing heat quickly...

    Van creeped into his dream world once more. Only this time, things weren't as beautiful as they were. Everything was back to it's baren surroundings and there wasn't a single sign of life. 

    _"Alice!"_ he cried, desperately searching for her admist the world of nothingness. Suddenly she appeared before him.

    "What do you want?" she asked in an agitated voice.

    "There you are, I was looking for you all over..." 

    "Why? I don't want to see you," she said. His face fell into a look of horror. "What, did you think I loved you? Just because of one measly kiss, don't be so sentimental!"

    _"Alice..."_

    "Why don't you just disappear? I don't ever want to see your face again! You're so pathetic, your groveling makes me sick! Just disappear!"

    A pain came from all over Rin's body. It crept from the bottom of his aching heart to the rest of his body. Suddenly Aki appeared by Hitomi's side.

    "I don't need you, I have Aki-kun now," she said cooly. She wrapped her arms around him and he did the same. Then there heads went together in a passionate kiss. Rin watched painfully as they kissed each other madly. He couldn't go on like this. It was too much of a burden to his fragile heart. No matter how much he always tried to hide is frail heart, no matter how many times he tried to turn his heart into stone, she was always able to melt all the ice away, and burn his entire soul.

    _"What's the point of going on? She doesn't even like me. Why did we have to be reborn again? Wasn't the pain enough the first time, now it's twice as much as it was before. What was the reason for my rebirth if it wasn't to be with her? That's all I ever really wanted..."_ then he quietly closed his eyes and let the life that she once breathed into him, get drained away by the same source.

    "Rin! Rin!" Alice pleaded. His hands had started to turn a frightening purplish color, and the life was swiftly leaving his face. "Don't leave me again, damnit! Why won't you see how much love I have for you? Was it all in vain? Tell me!" she cried as she placed her head against his.

    _ "Did I ever tell you... that I love you...?"_ his words came back to haunt her.

    "No you didn't!" she cried. The pendants light was getting dimmer and dimmer. 

    "I thought we could finally be together, I love you... I've always loved you, come back to me," she whispered. She closed her eyes and leaned into his ghostly face. She then gave her love to him in the form of a kiss. Suddenly the pendant shone with ten times the more light and magnificence then ever before.

    "Rin...! Rin...!" someone called out from the dark world of his dreams.

    _"Who's calling me?"_ he thought, _"I don't want to leave this peaceful dream. The real world hurts too much, Alice will never love me."_

    "Rin! I found you!" she cried happily. 

    He suddenly opened his eyes, "Let's go home, OK?" she called.

    "Our whole life is waiting ahead of us... You don't have to be sad anymore..."

     His eyes shone with a slight bit of hope, "I love you..." she told him truthfully.

    She reached her hand towards him, beckoning him to come with her. He raised his hand slowly and took hold of hers, taking them back into the world of reality.

  


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**A Few Authors Notes**

    The stories getting near the end, now for the wrap up! 

* * *

  
     E-mail me with questions at: foolishchild5@aol.com 


	10. Finally

Finally... **Shifting Paths**

     Well please enjoy and Please Read and Review once more.

**A Reminder on the Characters...**

Kanzaki Hitomi is Sakaguchi Alice (Arisu)  
Van de Fanel is Kobayashi Rin (Ring)  
Allen Schezar is Ogura Jinpachi  
Millerna ? is Nishikiori Enju (OK, so the original name was Nishikiori Issei, but that was a guy, so I'm changing it. His past life name was, Enju, and YES he was a women reborn as a MAN!)  
For the record: when this story started, Alice and company were 16, now the last chapter was 6 months after the begininng of the story. They were in the 11th grade and the begininng of this chapter starts 6 months AFTER the last, meaning they've come along one full year of school, meaning they are now in the 12th grade and are the seniors at their school and getting ready to take the exams to get into college. 

(writing) - things in parentheses are my notes and thoughts  
_writing_ - words in italics are what the characters thinking or flashbacks  
Disclaimer: I don't own Escaflowne or anything of Please Save My Earth for that matter. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* **Chapter 10 Finally...**

She reached her hand towards him, beckoning him to come with her. He raised his hand slowly and took hold of hers, taking them back into the world of reality.

    Rin felt warm soft lips as he opened his eyes from a long nightmare. There she was, next to him, kissing him. She pulled away from him slightly and opened her eyes. She smiled at him, relieved, then her eyes started to fill once more and her smile waivered. 

    "Rin... I..." she struggles to control her emotions, "Rin... you're so important to me! I really love you very much, you're so precious to me! I love you even more than I did before, as Hitomi."

    "Alice... I'm sorry. I'm sorry I put you through so much grief, why didn't I ever say anything? I'm such an idiot," he confessed, putting a hand to her cheek. 

    She holds his hand to her cheek and continues to cry as he holds her dearly. After her sobs subside a little, he wipes the stain of her tairs with his thumb and just looks at her, "God... Have I ever told you how beautiful you were?" she smiles at him bashfully and her cheeks turn a deep crimson color, and he jokes, "you're even pretty when you're embarassed!"

    He chuckles and pulls her in closer to him. _"Finally... Finally we can be together, truly. Before we restrained ourselves because of our fears, but now that we've finally overcome this hurtle we can be happy and say what we really feel. Now we are truly together..."_ he looks at her adoring and she smiles back at him. She shifts on the bed so that she's facing him and gives him a kiss. What started off as something sweet and gentle, slowly turned into something deep and filled with raging emotions. The both fell back onto his bed in a that deep kiss which neither wanted to part from.

    "Am I missing something here?" Enju asked the next morning when she found Rin and Alice holding hands together at the doorway. "Oh...! I see, you guy's finally got it together. Gee, it took you long enough."

    They both blushed and looked at each other sheepishly. The night before, Aki's dad anounced that they would be moving once again, and he left that very night, without even a goodbye.

Several months later...

    School has already let out and all four of them have already graduated. Jinpachi left for America with Enju a month ago, and Rin and Alice just took the college entrance exams for Tokyo University and both got in, tomorrow is the first day of classes...

    "Wow, time seems to really fly by doesn't it?" Alice asked as she and Rin walked along the park that was lined with beautiful cherry blossom trees.

    "Yeah... It just seems like yesterday that I moved here and we all met. I hope those two are happy in America," he replied, "now, we're starting our college lives...

    Alice gave a big sigh to this and leaned against his shoulder, "What's wrong?" he asked.

    "It's just that we're starting our new life in college, and I'm just thinking that we might not get to see each other us much as we do now. We'll have different classes, and there are so many pretty girls at Tokyo... I might get jealous if you pay too much attention to them," she confided.

    "Don't be ridiculous!" he said stopping and turning to face her, "you're the only one I can ever love, if anyone should be worried it's me! Guys are bound to come chasing after you, I mean look at you! Who wouldn't fall in love with you?" he said turning red.

    She laughed, "I guess we're both a little scared, we're finally going out in the real world. It soothes me to know that we'll be going together, and that you'll always be with me... You will stay with me won't you?" she asked shakily.

    Rin suddenly kissed her, "You can't get rid of me even if you tried."

    She smiled in relief, "I want to be with you always. Just the thought of being without you is to frightening to even think about."

    They shared another long kiss and after they broke apart Rin says, "Let's get married."

    Alice now turns a light red color, "I can't live without you, I know what it feels like to be witout you and I don't ever want to feel that way ever again. If you'll let me, I'll try to make you happy." 

    He wraps his arms around her from the back and nuzzles her neck, "I'll use all my heart and soul to protect you."

    She smiles at him and gives him a kiss as her reply and consent. _"Watching Rin talk about our future with a shining smile banished all my fears... We'll be alright, I just know it!"_

    "We could get a new place together, or you could just move in with me," he said shly.

    "Gee, you're sneakier than I thought," she said, "but I would love to move in with you," she said truthfully. "It would cost less, besides, I practically live there these days anyway."

    As their relationship had matured over the past months, Alice kept sneaking over the balcony window to see him in the middle of the night. All they ever did was all innocent, just kissing in each others arms and gazing at the night sky.

    "I already have all my stuff packed because I was going to move out anyways, I could just move in tonight. My mom's not home tonight, and it's getting a little lonely," she said.

    "We can have our own little party to celebrate our getting into Tokyo U," he said, giving her another kiss. "C'mon, let's go move you in."

    Once they got back to their apartments, the went straight to work moving all of Alice's stuff into Rin's apartment. They were going to be sharing his bed, since he only had one room. It was like they were already married. That night, while Alice was rearranging her stuff in his room, he snuck up on her and swept her off her feet.

    Alice giggled, "Put me down," she said weakly.

    He laid her on the bed and sat next to her, "I want to give you something to make our engagment real." He then took something from his back pocket and took her left hand. Taking her hand, he slid a ring with a glossy pink stone onto her finger, she gasped.

    "Rin..." she let out.

    "I just wanted to give you something to show you how much I love you," he said.

    "Thank you," she kissed him and gave him a hug, "there's something I want to give back to you too."

    She then took of the pink pendant and slid it back onto his neck, "This is my symbol of how much I love you. You gave this back to me once, and now I'm giving it back to you as a token of my love."

    They gazed into each others eyes for a long time, their powerful emotions for each other building up. They suddenly let it all out in a seering kiss which they both fell fully onto the bed from. His hands traced down the line of her back as her hand ran through his thick, dark hair. There arms and legs were a tangled mess in each others.

    "Make love to me," Alice told Rin. "I want you touch me, and feel me," she said, playing with the buttons on his shirt.

    "Are you sure?" he asked hesitantly. He didn't want to do something she wasn't sure about.

    "I'm as sure as the day is bright and the night is dark," she told him, kissing him dearly.

    She slowly undid the buttons of his shirt and felt the crevices of his well chiseled chest. She left a trail of kisses from his neck to his stomach, he then laid her flat on the bed and began to undress her in the same manner. She then unbuttoned his pants and he kicked them off, all while still kissing her. They then slipped under the covers together still kissing each other.

    That night they shared their bodies together and became one with each other physically. Now they were both joined physically and mentally.

(What? You thought I was going to go a little farther than that? Well sorry to disappoint you.)

Next Morning...

    Alice awoke to the sun peaking in through Rin's thin curtains and found his arms wrapped tightly around her. She smiled happily and gave him a kiss in his sleep and he stirred a bit. She then went back to sleep feeling happily content and at peace in her lovers arms. The both of them then woke up a few hours later, because they were tired from the night before. They couldn't help smiling at each other as they awoke.

    "We have school in a few hours," Rin spoke up, "we should get dressed and get there early."

    "Not yet. I don't want to leave here yet, I'm so comfortable," she said happily and closed her eyes and leaned into his chest. So they were late their first day of school...

A Couple of Months Later... (thought it was going to end there didn't cha? Well not quite yet.)

    Rin and Alice were enjoying they're break from college at their new home. They had just moved into a house and have been happily married for 2 years. Alice had given birth to a healthy baby boy 9 months after they had started school together and now she expecting again in about 2 months.

    Alice was playing with little baby Van when Rin came back. Since Alice was pregnant, she had left her job temporarily incase of emergencies. 

    "How are you sweethart?" he said as he came in and gave her a kiss. He picked Van up in his arms, "Wow! You're getting to be pretty big aren't ya?"

    Alice laughed, she couldn't believe how happy she was. She stared at her husband with their happy little boy in his arms and then turned to her own round tummy. She couldn't believe how happy and lucky they were, Rin must have been thinking the exact same thing because he spoke, "I can't believe how unbelievably happy we are."

    "I know," she responded, she looked up at the clear blue sky and pondered, "I bet there up there watching over us," she said.

    "I think so too," he said, and gave her a kiss. Little Van gave a gurgle, it was the perfect picture of contentment, surely Van and Hitomi were watching over them from up above.

~*Finito*~ 

(unless you really want more, I have some ideas about writing stories about what happened inbetween a couple of chapters) 

  
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**A Few Authors Notes**

    Wow! I can't believe I actually finished this! I started this in the summer of 2001 and have just now finished it in March of 2002. This is my first story and I hope all of you who have read it enjoyed it somewhat, if you did, look forward to more fanfic's from me. I've been refraining from starting new fic's till I finished this one and the ideas have accumulated into a big pile. Next up: 

    Van goes to the grocery store for a school project (I actually had to do this project) where he has to come up with a monthly budget. A cute girl named Hitomi comes up to him and asks if he needs any help. He is immediately attracted to her bright personality and charm. To help Van with his project, Hitomi uses one of the cash registers to ring up all the supplies he needs, in turn she gets fired from the store. Hitomi is actually the only one working in her family, her mother is jobless and her little brother is only 7 year-old. Since Van get's her fired, he feels bad and applies for the job himself and gets it. He then gives all his earnings to her and her family. They slowly start getting closer and closer as tragedy comes nearer and nearer.

    So, does that sound exciting? I promise to try and get this one out faster (at least I'll try my best, it's a pretty complex story with a lot of twists). Please read it when it comes out and please review this one (I personally hated the way I started this one off). 

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     E-mail me with questions at: foolishchild5@aol.com 


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